Daisuke
by LeeNejiTenten
Summary: Summary: Dear Gods that rule the domain over manga and anime, I know that I don't like anime or manga so much but why do you have to be so spiteful? I don't like Naruto and ABSOLUTELY hate Sasuke but isn't petty revenge a bit beneath you? I mean giving me a brother obsessed with revenge and a bigger brother who's gonna kill me anyway! What were you thinking!
1. Chapter 1

Summary : Dear Gods that rule the domain over manga and anime, I know that I don't like anime or manga so much but why do you have to be so spiteful ? I don't like Naruto and ABSOLUTELY hate Sasuke but isn't petty revenge a bit beneath you ? I mean giving me a brother obsessed with revenge and a bigger brother who's gonna kill me anyway !? What were you thinking ?!

So how'd it happen anyway ? I know that the face staring up at me is my own, funny thing is, it's all covered in blood and contorted. I remember being on the fourth floor balcony looking down at the little ant-like beings and all of a sudden…

I fell ? Just like that ?! I look up and see my friends all horrified and in some cases outright bawling. Wusses I'm alive . I try shouting but my voice is constricted and comes out all ghostly like. Determined not to be outdone by some stupid fall, I go to my body and try to enter. Only to phase into the ground. Next I try to contort the spirity being that was me like the body that was on the ground. Still no luck dammit.

And then it hit me.

 _OH SHIT I'm DEAD !_

And here comes the light. Bleh so predictable.

Mayhaps the God who read that thought was amused or offended. I don't know. I'll never find out because once I reached it, it was verrry hard to get out of. I mean like something was clamping down on myself ( later on I got horrified when I realized what the something _was_ ) and then someone grabs hold of the lower part of my body and whups it like there was no tomorrow.

I wanted to shout out ," WHAT THE HELL ?!" but the only thing that came out was," WAAAAAH ! " and then promptly fell asleep.

I am a naturally stubborn person so I absolutely _refused_ to be fed. The poor woman who was my mother kept coaxing me to _"eat"_ , but I went to sleep each time. But then later on ( three hours ) my traitorous body felt too hungry and I ate. At this time I notice another baby and realize that he's my twin. And fell asleep.

So that's how I spent the rest of the few days; eating, sleeping and pooping .

What a great life a baby's is.

BUT ! All of that came crashing down when our mother was taking us for a walk one day a month after my rebirth and I happened to overhear a conversation between my mum and a gorgeous redhead that would shake the foundations of my relatively peaceful days.

"So, Kushina-chan how much more weeks?"

"Biwako sama says one week two max Mikoto! Are these Daisuke and Sasuke?! Kawaii ! How's Itachi holding up ?"

And that's the moment my brain went to overdrive. "Whoa whoa WHOA Kushina ? Biwako ? Mikoto ? _SASUKE and ITACHI_ ?! I'm in the Naruto world !"

In my mind I was crying anime tears and in real life I was crying. Weell, more like wailing. Mikoto ( mom ) was able to calm me down by sticking one of those fascinating baby toys in my face. The conversation continued but I didn't pay any attention cause the toy _was so effing awesome._ Which made Sasuke grab for it.

"Jackass", I thought.

- **A FEW DAYS LATER** -

It's a normal day in the Uchiha main house. Dad's missing ( as usual ) mom's taking care of us, I made Sasuke cry by punching him in his baby face with my baby fist and I got my first view of my would be killer. Itachi Uchiha .

But surprisingly, he is calm, composed and kinda _normal_ if you get my drift. His curious eyes look down at us ( Sasuke's still crying ,The Wuss ) and then I remember _who_ actually was looking down at us and then I start crying. But he calmly comforts him and me by murmuring sweet soothing nothings. It was surreal if anything, and so comforted I fell asleep.

Later that evening I was awoken again by Sasuke's _infuriating_ wailing but immediately understood why he was. It was like as if someone was choking me, a very oppressive feel that made me panic. But kaa-chan ( bless her ) comes and soothes us. I wondered what this actually might be. And then it struck.

The Kyuubi. This had got to be the night of the nine tails' attack and scared shitless clung on to kaa-chan. It was in that state that I was slowly calmed down from and put to sleep. Later that night Itachi came into our room and looked down at us.

"Don't worry my little brothers. Your big bro will make all of the bad guys go away."

I know that he's actually a good guy but even then, it was pretty heartless of him to kill his own kin in order to prevent civil war. Something better could have been done I'm sure. It was with these dark thoughts that I fell asleep.

A/N : So, my first fanfic is out :D

Thoughts ? Suggestions ?

R&R


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Dear insanelytwisted and ArtemisKirara7. Thanks for your reviews :D. I will try and incorporate all of your suggestions to improve my story as much as I can. This is my first time writing anything, so bear with me. I've got the plot upto the Pein fight now in my head and the stories will come out as and when I absolutely can and in a way that the readers can enjoy too. For now, toodles :]

Time went on by, and we grew. Sasuke frequently took after our father in character becoming easily upset and moody, and _somehow_ \- as mom puts it - it was my responsibility to cheer him up. He just sits in the porch when Itachi and dad are training and looks at them wistfully. So, I go to him and do basic stretches and what not pacifying him by saying that it is body conditioning and helps relax to make us stronger. I'm all for expressing moods and getting upset, but getting all snarky and depressing just because the house cat ate his tomatoes is just BS. I love my mom and try to emulate her behavior as much as possible. She's an eternal ray of sunshine, always smiling and encouraging. I know getting attached to her was trouble, but I couldn't help it. Within the danky walls of the Uchiha compound where everyone had a scowl stamped onto their face, she and few others - to me anyway - were absolute gems.

Before school Sasuke and I were forbidden from wandering out the compound on our own so making contact with the hyperactive blond was out of the question, let alone befriending him. The first time I actually saw him, my heart literally melted. It was our first day at the academy. Itachi, because he was in his final year, along with my mom and surprisingly, my dad came to the academy along with us. Reaching the academy and looking around, I found him. There he was, sitting all lonely and melancholy on that swing that hung from the tree in front of the academy. Itachi saw me looking at him, perceptive as always and Sasuke was digging his nose. I love my brothers.

I didn't want my parents to find out that I had information that could have the Hokage set their asses on fire, so I continued walking into the academy and resolved to talk to Naruto at least by break time. Entering the class I was surprised to find lots of people I couldn't recognize.

" _I guess I shouldn't be ",_ I thought to myself. The story that I knew of only focused on the characters that the person found significant and some of them were sitting there too. The black pineapple on the front was certainly Shika and the _big boned_ guy sitting next to him, Choji. Two hoodies, way at the back, one open and the other closed were worn by people I recognized too. Kiba was by himself. I'm guessing that the Inuzuka hadn't gotten Akamaru yet at that point of time and the bug user from the Aburame clan. Shimo? I forget his name. Thankfully Sakura and the blond Yamanaka hadn't arrived yet. The mousy looking Hinata was sitting at the back a few seats away from Kiba. I dragged Sasuke with me and sat smack dab in the middle of the class. I would realize in the later years what a huge mistake that was. Slowly, the class filled up, with Naruto entering in the last and the most dramatic fashion possible. He was literally _kicked in_ by a young and lanky looking Iruka who was shouting something along the lines of

"IF I SEE YOU LURKING AROUND THE HALLS WITH THAT _INFERNAL_ BUCKET OF PAINT AGAIN !..."

and turned and saw us. Placing Naruto in the only other seat available, which was next to us as Sasuke's glares scared everyone who came near, he introduced himself and in turn made us introduce ourselves individually and let us free for the rest of the morning.

" So Sasuke wanna mingle?", I ask

"Hn"

Good signs, the positive one. So I drag him around the class and stand in front of Shika who's snoring away. So I begin a light conversation with Choji. Let it be known that Sasuke's never talked to anyone outside of the compound and is very socially stinted. So my continuously talking with Choji or Shika's snoring started pissing him off. I swear to God that I saw tick marks begin to develop and so just to see how far he could go I kept talking. Finally two and a half seconds later he erupted.

"Are you going to talk to me or sleep all day you lazy ASS?! "

Okay so it was Shika who was pissing him off. In typical Nara fashion i.e. with the pineapple hair pointing at us said, "Troublesome. Name's Shikamaru Nara and by your tees I can see that you're both Uchihas and the guy there introduced himself to Choji as Daisuke, so the troublesome one's Sasuke. There, all done. Now lemme sleep."

"Who're you calling troublesome you lazy bum?! Get off your ass and talk to me properly!"

Finally, looking at Sasuke he says," Sheesh… You're just like mum."

Not wanting to lose a brother to something as petty as a burst heart due to high blood pressure, I politely dismissed ourselves ( Shika : "Finally!" ) and went around getting to know others. I had an ulterior motive to all this. After getting to know the "rookies" and a very disturbing intro to Sakura and Ino, I finally went upto Naruto who was sullenly looking outside due to the fact that no one had approached him.

"Ohaiyo benchmate-san! What's your name?"

"You're just doing this out of pity aren't you?", he asked scowling at me.

Right then and there I knew that I'd done the wrong thing. He was excited to be a part of a group that was closer to his age, see him as a peer and at the least get to know his benchmates better. But, I'd totally ignored him and went straight to the front of the class and came to him last. I had to repair this.

"No you're totally wrong! I usually reserve the best for the last and that's why came to you last you see. My name is Daisuke Uchiha and Mr. Scowly-face there is my twin Sasuke Uchiha."

I don't know if it was the fact that I'd called him the best or that I'd called Sasuke Scowly-face but his mood lightened and became a bit more receptive.

"Oi remember the name Naruto Uzumaki cause I'm gonna be Hokage! Believe it!"

Listening to this Sasuke snorted and I whapped him in the back of his head.

"Hey you got a problem with that? Since you're so skeptical of it Scowly, why not make it a competition? The loser has to get the winner whatever he wants. Deal?"

I was sure that Sasuke would refuse, but to my utter astonishment he said, "Hn I'll become Hokage before you anyday!"

Arrogant ass.

That's how a friendship and rivalry to the same person between two of the youngest heirs of the Uchiha clan and the resident Jinchuuriki began.

A/N: Second one out! As you can see my update intervals are probably going to be very messed up. But don't worry. I have no plans of abandoning my first fanfic :D

R&R peeps :]


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: Okay then, I got a question as to whom I'd be pairing Daisuke with. Well, I haven't decided on the pairing yet. It's something like we'll get there when we get there. So there you have it. :P

The first year of academy was as I expected it to be. F.U.N. It mostly consisted of me ganging up with Naruto and skipping class or tag team with Shikamaru, Choji, Kiba, Shino and Naruto again to go to a hill and either sleep or watch clouds. Oh, and I activated the two tomoe stage of my Sharingan. Take that Sasuke! But, he's grown as well. He takes after our mother, slender and sleek like a cat, while I take after our father a bit stockier and more muscle mass. Back to my Sharingan. Funny story actually, the way I activated it.

 **-Flashback-**

It was a normal evening. Sasuke and I were returning from the academy after a small ice-cream, while Itachi had headed on, and walking towards the Uchiha compound when both of us suddenly stopped. Hairs were rising at the back of my neck and my sixth sense was tingling, for there in front of us stood our number one enemy. Fangirls. As a departure from the story I knew, there were _two_ factions. The Sasuke Fan Club headed by Sakura and The Daisuke Fan Club headed by Ino. Sasuke, the nimble bastard, ran away as fast as he could. Leaving me to the predatory girls. Remember, that I'm now a 9-year old with a 29-year old mind. I am neither a lolicon nor a pervert ( I think ), and seeing such small girls with those predatory looks was somewhat _indimidating_. So, I did what my instincts were shouting at me to do. RUNNNN.

And run I did. But me being slower that the traitorous twin was easily caught. And surrounded.

" DAISUKEEEE!", was all I heard when I heard my T-shirt rip. It was actually then that I became terrified. Because a T-shirt that was stitched for us by our mum shouldn't be ripped or torn or shredded or even have the teensiest tiniest hole, else she'll beat the literal snot outta me. I think that was the moment that I activated the first stage of the Sharingan, cause I was able to see openings where there were none before and a lot more mistakes that had gone unnoticed. Images were sharper and slower. I saw an opening that I could fit through and took it.

Probably breaking the bones of a little girl in the process, but that's besides the point. I was ruffled and my head was paining like a _bitch_ cause of the few hairs that got plucked. But, I survived.

Reaching the gates of the compound, I could see Sasuke trying to stifle his laughter and miserably failing and Itachi having a small, amused smirk that irritated me to no end. As I neared them though, I heard Sasuke gasp, which I mistook for laughter.

"Don't even think about it you traitor", I snarled. But the expression on his face wasn't amused. Rather it was shock that I could register and even Itachi was mildly surprised.

"Have you taken a look at a mirror?", he asked.

"And where exactly will I find one outside my house you dumbo?", I replied.

Quietly, Itachi took out a mirror out of his backpack and held it out to me. I looked into the mirror. Staring back at me was my face obviously, but the most striking change that I observed were two _beautiful_ eyes that had a single tomoe each swirling around the cornea.

I inhaled, then exhaled. And promptly fainted. When I came to, I could see that Itachi had revived me as he was holding a canteen of water and Sasuke was worriedly looking on.

"Are you fine?"

"Aa, just the shock and the fact that I'm overwhelmed right now."

"Try shutting the chakra flow to your eyes.", Itachi suggested and I did the same. I could notice a very huge difference. In fact, colors became less vibrant, images became more blurry and the world took on a darker hue.

"There. Inform father and mother at the earliest. I'm sure that they'll be very proud."

Excited and not thinking about anything else I entered the house shouting ," Mother!"

One look at me and her whole demeanor changed from smiling, cheerful and comforting to smiling, cheery and scary.

"Daisuke. Why do I see a rip on the T-shirt I made for you so lovingly?"

I swear that I could see the translucent face of the Shinigami behind her and got the same sense of fear from earlier that evening. Thus trapped I front of her and not knowing what to do I cowered.

"Look at me when I speak to you Daisuke!"

Slowly I did. And for the second time that day I saw shock over a family member's face. Which instantly turned to ecstasy.

"My my Daisuke. Why didn't you tell me that you'd activated your Sharingan? And two tomoe on each eye too!"

In my fear I didn't recognise the fact that again the colors seemed that much brighter and the images were a bit more sharper. So, now I had half of the chibi females in Konoha to thank for my first stage and my mother for the second stage.

I never knew that women instilled so much fear into men. I had a totally new respect for them. The older ones not the chibis.

- **Flashback End-**

"Laugh all you want. But the fact remains that, I have a Sharingan with which I could kick your ass with my hands tied", I warned, after a retelling of the tale to Naruto on whose insistence I told our whole group sans Sasuke who already knew, how I activated the Sharingan.

We usually meet up like this for training, since I decided that I wanted all of them to be a bit more prepared this time around. And the situation with Naruto had improved hugely. He was no longer alone. He had us, his friends who would support him always. I didn't know what to do about Hinata though. Her fight and subsequent loss with Neji during the Chuunin exams would be a base for her uncertainty throughout later on in life and I wanted to help make her a bit bolder. But, I keep failing miserably. Every time I approach her she turns an interesting shade of purplish-pink and faints or after school she'll have her branch member escort, Kou, if I remember correctly, glaring at me.

For Naruto, I looked up scrolls for taijutsu in the public library, since those dumbasses at the place won't allow him in. Interestingly, I found a style Buroura no ken that would suit his fighting style _perfectly_. Naruto worked on the taijutsu till the point it would burn him up. It was so random and so ingenious that even Shikamaru had trouble coming up with counters while sparring. Heck, I had trouble in seeing his moves before they came.

Seeing such a huge advantage I tried to incorporate the style along with the traditional Uchiha fighting style. It was brilliant. I was able to go toe to toe with Itachi during training at home. Another scroll that I found explained a way for aspiring ninjutsu specialists to increase their chakra _and_ keep control at the same time. It was speculated on the scroll the the First Hokage Hashirama Senju worked on increasing his chakra reserves by this method. So, I pretty much wanted the entire group to take the exercise seriously.

It was pretty simple, actually. For muscles to grow, we have to work them hard upto the point of exhaustion and cool them down. The same applied to chakra apparently. The author of the scroll advised to empty the user's _usable_ chakra reserve each night and get a fitful sleep of at the lest ten hours. This not only helped increase the base chakra reserve, but did wonders for chakra control too. It was dangerous true, but the rewards were really worth the risk. Naruto resisted at first, but then I instilled the importance of chakra control by proving to him that while everyone in the group could perform the simple Bunshin jutsu and he couldn't.

Things in the academy got serious around the time of exams. But, Shika, Naruto and I were as lazy as possible. Skipping classes happened all the time, but at the same time doing a brilliant job both on field exams and on paper tests. Our other teacher Mizuki tried to purposefully fail Naruto on the field test. He should have been using the Academy standard taijutsu style but was using his own personal style to fight Naruto. Seeing this, Naruto switched to the Buroura no ken, which surprised Mizuki and left an opening. Naruto took advantage of this and was able to punch Mizuki out of the fighting ring. And therefore, although Shika, Naruto and I were all close to dead last, we were in no way going to fail.

Even through this, one thing scared me. Itachi graduated this year. And if I'm guessing the timeline right, he's gonna massacre the clan under that sick Danzo's orders in a year and a half.

A/N: So yeah I did that :D. I've always thought that my sister is a terrifying being and so is my mother. And yes, I plan on Daisuke being stronger than Sasuke until Sasuke gets Oro pedo's curse mark, where there will still be a difference in power but I won't say who gets more powerful than who :P


	4. Chapter 4

A/N: Akugitsune328, your Hana SI story is going to be awesome. ArtemisKirara7, thanks for your help. Again. The 'said is dead' poster helped out a lot ;]. I encourage the readers to download one of those posters too.

"Come on Daisuke! We'll have to reach home soon. I want to train with Itachi as much as possible. He'll be home by now.", Sasuke exclaimed excitedly.

"Sheesh Sasuke", I sighed " if it weren't for the fact that we were brothers, I'm sure that lots of your fangirls would be disappointed. He's come back from his mission only today. He's going to be very tired. Let him rest for today. Train with me again today. Tomorrow we'll get a pinky swear from Itachi to train with us. Deal?"

Miffed about the fact that I implied that he was gay de replied," Hn. Today we train. And I'll beat you this time."

"Bro. You couldn't defeat me when I had two tomoe. I highly doubt that you can defeat me with the final stage on."

"Well then keep your Sharingan in it's deactivated state and spar with me then. We'll see who wins."

"I've beaten you countless times with it deactivated too." , I teased smirking.

"That's because you have more muscle mass"

"So what you want me to remove my muscles too?" I asked jokingly.

"I want to defeat a mass that can move. What's the point if you can't move with your muscles removed?"

"That's assuming you defeat me"

Continuing this banter we continued towards home. Sasuke and I are now in our third year and things were still peaceful within the compound.

" _Maybe, this time dad doesn't get as mad as the story I knew_." I thought.

I'd activated the third stage early this year, when a training session almost turned into a tragedy. We have a system in the clan, where people who have activated a certain type of the Sharingan could spar only with a person of the same eye type. Since I was able to keep my pace against _Itachi_ our 'esteemed' father thought it prudent to set me up against the people who'd activated their final stage of the Sharingan. Those people were tough obviously, but they had nothing on Itachi. I was constantly evolving my fighting style to match the various people who wanted to spar against me, Jonin included. I was up against a hot headed Chunin who'd just returned from his exams and graduated. The dumbo's ego couldn't handle the fact that he was getting his ass handed to him by a third year academy student and launched a fire jutsu was that was incredibly large. He lost control of it and it reached the ends of the small ground that usually Itachi and I use for sparring. My ninjutsu arsenal was limited only to three fire jutsu. The Fireball, Phoenix fire and Great Fireball jutsus. I had all the academy jutsu down too, and have reserves that could rival a seasoned Chunin. My eyes could make out a woman and her child on the road that was behind the bushes that marked the boundaries of the training grounds.

Thinking on my feet, along with applying chakra on my feet for the added speed, I shunshined to the spot and knocked out the lady and braced along with the child with my back to the out of control jutsu. It washed over me boiling hot and unforgiving, but to me the safety of the child was paramount.

"Hey hey, don't worry". I cooed. "It's going to be all right."

I endured the four seconds that the jutsu lasted and only after ensuring that the child was safe did I pass out due to the pain. When I came to, my torso was all bound and the doctor informed me that I had third-degree burns.

My mother was in the room with me along with the woman, her child, Sasuke, my sparring partner – who seemed to be nursing a heavily bruised arm - , Itachi - who was looking at him in a stern, stoic manner - and dad.

The woman, Mitsuki Uchiha, bowed and vehemently thanked me for saving her and her son. I mentioned that we were family and family always looks out for one other and that Sasuke or Itachi would've done the same thing if they were in my place.

"I'm sorry Daisuke-sama. This was the direct cause of my jutsu and I've learnt my lesson."

"None of this sama business Aoi-san. Call me Daisuke. As long as you realize the consequences and are sorry, I am happy. You're forgiven"

Surprised looks were present all round the room other than Itachi who seemed to have a significant smlrk on his face.

"Tch", Sasuke said miffed, passing a roll of notes to Itachi.

My mum not missing a movement scolded," You bet on your brother while he was injured?!"

Seeing the scene in front of me, I started laughing. Heartily.

" _Yes, there's not going to be a massacre this time around._ ", I thought happily.

Oh how wrong I was.

My third year at the academy was relatively peaceful, with Naruto and I consistently earning the last two places at the theory classes and Sasuke, Naruto and I earning the top three places at the field classes. So as a result, we were along with Shika somewhere in the middle. Something, my father never approved of. But I never gave a rat's ass about him.

A few weeks after the end of the mid-year exams Shisui died. Apparently, he committed suicide. This had me sweating bullets. The next day, some police came to arrest Itachi on account of involuntary manslaughter but my father who was head of the clan and held incredible weight within the department, was able to send them off. When he queried as to why they claimed that during dinner later that night, Itachi just got up from the table and went away.

That week the tension at home was really heavy. Itachi was mostly missing and our father had a more severe scowl on his face than usual. That whole week I forced Naruto, Shika and Sasuke to stay back at the academy till it was very late and only when Shika informed us that he had to leave, else his mum would be troublesome, that we parted ways. Each day I walked towards the compound with trepidation and each day I would be relieved at the scene which showed that there weren't any bodies on the ground.

Then, ten days after Shisui died, it happened. We returned from training that night as usual and what got me tense was the fact that the gate guards were lying in pools of their blood. Seeing this, Sasuke gasped and I stiffened.

Activating my Sharingan I turned to Sasuke. "Sasuke. Whatever happens, stay behind me. Stay. Behind. Me. Got it?"

Slowly, he nodded his head. We entered the compound. And my worst nightmares were founded. Bodies strewn about helter skelter. The ground was painted red. Walls splattered in red. The people who tried to fight back were missing heads and/or limbs. One needed to be a different type of heartless to do this. Women, children, old people and I didn't even want to think about the babies.

" _Please please please. Lots of things have changed. Please let him have at least spared mum"_ I thought desperately as we raced towards our house. Reaching, the both of us raced to the main room. I reached first and slid the door open. Our dad was already dead and our mum just muttered something and _nodded._

The Sharingan, is a truly highly blessed and at the same time severely cursed eye. I can still remember with stunning detail how Itachi's blade just seemed to slide through her most vital point, her heart; the expression of extreme pain and sorrow on her face; the stoic look on his as he slid the blade out.

At that moment my eyes _burned._ It was a really intense pain that seemed to express the amount of pain that my emotions were going through at the moment. Instinctively grabbing Sasuke, I flared a huge amount of chakra and faltered. What I wasn't prepared for though, was the appearance of a shimmering blue chakra armour that surrounded and protected us. The chakra drain was heavy and along with the flare, I'd dropped to about half my reserves. From how much Susano'o was draining me I could last one probably one and a half minutes.

"Why Itachi? WHY?!", Sasuke shouted.

"To test my power", he replied.

"Don't give us that bullshit.", I snarled. "You know that I have an abnormally high amount of chakra. I can maintain this for a minute, which should be enough for the closest ANBU patrol to reply to my flare, so don't even think of doing anything asshole."

His eyes swirling in their Mangekyou state, he whispered, "Hmph. Listen and listen well foolish little brothers. Unless the both of you get your eyes to the state which mine is now, you'll never defeat me. Weak little shits."

Itachi then shunshined away. I maintained the Susano'o until the ANBU arrived and passed out. My dreams, if you could call them that, was filled with images of my mother getting stabbed over and over. Each time though Itachi's facial expression would change. In some he'd be laughing like a maniac. In some, he'd be crying. But the end was always the same. There would be a blade sticking out of her back and she would spit a humongous amount of blood.

When I came to, I didn't want to meet anyone. I wasn't prepared for the emotional strain. The sympathetic looks that people would no doubt give us.

"Get up Daisuke, I know that you're awake.", Sasuke said.

I continued to ignore him.

"You snore."

"I don't snore, ass."

"Yes you do. You're asleep when you do so how would you know?"

"I know that I don't snore."

"I need to talk to you about Itachi's capture and execution."

I hardened. That was the exact drive that I needed. I was NOT going to allow my twin to become the brainless avenger that the story I knew portrayed him to be. And neither was I going to be one. Don't get me wrong. I am severely pissed off at that stupid older brother of mine. I just didn't want to kill him. Maim, probably beat him to a pulp but not kill.

I got up abruptly. I removed all of the contraption things that were stuck on my body and motioned to Sasuke to follow me. I explained to the nurse that I had to have a heart to heart with my dear brother and left the hospital. He was obviously curious as to what I was doing, but quietly followed me to where I was leading him.

I asked a shinobi where the closest aloof training ground would be. After getting directions and reaching there, without explaining anything I proceeded to _beat the living shit out of him._ Oh he tried to fight back. But I kept at it, delivering my most powerful punches, tripping him, kicking him and basically using him as my punching bag. At one point, he just fell. I was exhausted too.

" _Gods, the guy can take a punch",_ I thought to myself.

I sat down next to him panting. We were quiet for a few minutes. Then he asked," Was that a show of how much power I would need to gather before I reach his level?"

"No you idiot. That was for even harboring the thought of mentioning Itachi's execution."

He looked up at me, astonished.

"He's family". I continued, looking at the setting sun. "One doesn't turn their back on family. Even if they turn their backs on you."

With a serious look on his face, then smiling, he replied," Yeah. I thought you might say that."

"But I get dibs on beating the shit to an inch of his life", he continued.

"That's alright with me bro.", I said falling right next to him looking at the sky turn from red to black.

A/N: Yes yes. Daisuke's got the Mangekyo. But he's not going to use it much. At the moment he's powrerful enough to probably give Mizuki a run for his money, whom I would place as a powerful Chunin.


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N** : So, that's the prologue done with. I wanted to add another story but I thought that it might've

been too much of a bore for you readers. And so, here's the official first chapter. The story format in fanfiction isn't allowing me to insert lines. Therefore, I will be inserting small dashes, which means that the scene has changed.

 **Disclaimer** : I don't own Naruto or any of the manga's associated characters. Well Daisuke's mine though.

I woke up with a start. My dreams lately have been peaceful since that awful night seven months ago. Perturbed, I walk into Sasuke's room. He's sleeping like a child. Even Naruto's fast asleep in his room, one leg on the floor while the other on the bed. He looks like he's about to fall over, but I know that that's his normal sleeping position. Something should've woken me up. I go up and down the house searching thoroughly, but I find nothing.

Looking at the clock, I notice that it's 5 AM. It's about half-hour till the time I usually get up so I leave trying to get back to sleep and freshen up a bit. The house doesn't seem as lonely as I thought it would be. Naruto just showed up one day with all of his things ( four cups of cup ramen, a pillow and a worn out teddy ) and said that he's gonna be staying with us. Shika and sometimes Choji would come over and stay the night. Ino and Sakura, who tried to follow this example were promptly kicked out of the house. Naruto moving in with us brought about an unseen advantage. Innumerable chances to get to speak to the Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi. It was normal to find him coming in on a Sunday to have a casual lunch with the three of us.

 _"It's pretty cool of him to make some time and come over just for Naruto. Although, that could also be because he is the village_ jinchuriki. _",_ I thought to myself.

I'd planned to drop out of school this year and to train under someone as an apprentice, preferably Kakashi or Guy. Kakashi because he was the only one out of the Uchiha clan to actually master the Sharigan and Guy because he was able to convert Lee who had no talent for nin, tai or genjutsu into a _Taijutsu master_ and is pretty much the most sincere guy around _._

I brought the idea of either graduating early or dropping out of school to the Hokage. And was shot down in two seconds flat.

"No way Daisuke-kun.", he refused vehemently. "I've been planning to instate a law that demands that every ninja hopeful must pass five years of the academy mandatorily."

" _Well that must be some sort of record in the failed plans archive.",_ I thought sourly.

 **-TWO YEARS LATER-**

Days went by normally. Sasuke and I were now the village's latest gossip and it annoyed him to no end. I took it through one ear and let it out the other. I couldn't begin to be bothered by them. One huge difference that I observed was that people would no longer glare at Naruto or even let a peep at him. Well, that might've been because we were with him always and if anyone glared or spoke trash about him I would in turn glare at them _with the Sharingan activated_ , village rules be damned.

I took the chakra training exercise very seriously now and was employing the technique daily. The results although not instantaneous, made me very glad. In terms of quantity, I could perform about forty seven _Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu_ before tiring out per day. After showing Naruto the jutsu, he made me regret it the same evening.

Apparently, after I left after repeatedly warning him not to perform it without my or Sasuke's supervision, he performed the jutsu, with his chakra control still being frustratingly abysmal, and set fire to our poor cat's favorite tree. That evening Buri-chan was glaring at me as if it were all my fault. It probably was, teaching a knucklehead fire jutsu is disastrous, but even after all of this though, it was worth just having him with us. Otherwise, the house seems a bit lonely and dank.

He still caused trouble for the people though. Stealth is his specialty. He came home panting one night, claiming to have snuck in to the _Hyuga_ compound and painting one their walls neon pink. To prove it, he had an empty bucket of said paint and the next day we saw a very irritated Neji glaring at Naruto. Poor guy must have a relative who broke his back after cleaning that wall.

Remember how I stupidly chose the middle bench in the middle row as my seat. It was biting me in the ass now. In our final year, we covered pretty much every topic I knew about the Naruto world like the Warring states, the Uchiha and Senju rivalry, the founding of Konoha etc. This made me extremely bored and frequently I was nodding off to sleep. And every time I was woken up rudely by a very irate looking Iruka-sensei with a few lumps on my head to boot. All of this happened with Shika snoring in the front bench. Lucky bastard. He had the excuse of being a Nara.

I was contemplating on the virtues of changing my last name to Nara when Iruka made an astonishing announcement.

"As you all know, this is your final year. Your final exams will be in the coming March which is not more than two months away. So, I advise the all of you to prepare well for your finals and get a pretty good score."

For some reason, he was glaring at Naruto and me darkly while saying this. This could be due to the fact that I sometimes tutor Sasuke at class and still end up getting the second worst marks in my theory exam or that Naruto, who had an innate talent to perform ninjutsu, had the class' suckiest chakra control.

 **-THE DAY BEFORE EXAMS-**

"I thought I told you not to paint anything ever AGAIN!", Iruka roared. "You are NOT going home until you finish cleaning that monument and it's sparkly clean. Ya hear me?!"

"Yes", Naruto mumbled walking over to our desk.

"What did you do now?", I bemoaned.

With an ear splitting grin he replied ," I gave the Hokage monument a phenomenal upgrade."

Oh. That. If I remember right, he gave the third a nosebleed and gave the first a kabuki makeover. Phenomenal indeed.

"FULL CLASS NINJUTSU TEST! NOW!", Iruka shouted.

"To pass this test you must Henge into me exactly."

Since we were going alphabetically, I lazed around with Sasuke and Naruto in the back.

"Uchiha, Daisuke!"

I walked over to the front and henged into sensei. Sasuke followed me and did the same.

"Uzumaki, Naruto!"

" _Hoo boy. Here it comes.",_ I thought and braced.

"HENGE", Naruto roared. Standing in front of Iruka was an extremely beautiful girl. Butt naked. Well, not exactly. She had small wisps of smoke covering her modesty. This prompted a nosebleed out of every male in that class. Me included. All of my other wonderful classmates though had fainted, sporting fairly perverted grins.

"That was my sexy jutsu. How effective was it Iruka sensei?", Naruto asked grinning.

"IDIOT. Don't make up stupid jutsu!"

Our poor teacher had to be getting hoarse, as he drank some water and continued ,"All of you pass. Including Naruto.", Iruka declared to a collective ,"WHAA?!" from the class.

Later that evening, Naruto came back having cleaned the monument thoroughly. With a huge grin to his face he declared that Iruka had invited him to ramen at Ichiraku's and asked if either Sasuke or I wanted to tag along. The both of us denied.

Shrugging his shoulders he exclaimed ,"More for me then!"

 **-THE NEXT DAY-**

The exams were exactly how I expected them to be. Written was a breeze, but I was too lazy to answer everything. Practicals though was what had me worried. Not for myself, but Naruto. He had all of the academy jutsu other than the Bunshin down, even though he's been working on his chakra control. I didn't want Naruto to find out about the Kyuubi from the likes of Mizuki. I figured that the Hokage had to finally tell him when he became a genin.

The practical exams were done student-by-student. Once inside the exam room we'd be asked to perform _one_ academy standard jutsu since we were running short of time. My classmates went in and came out in three to four minutes, triumphant that they'd passed and proudly displaying their Konoha headbands.

When I went in, I was asked by Iruka to perform the _Kawarimi no jutsu._ Sasuke's exam was the Shunshin. When Naruto's turn came around he looked at me nervously.

"Knock 'em of their feet Naruto!", I encouraged smiling widely and giving him a thumbs up.

He grinned back, gave me the thumbs up and hurried in. But his exam took longer than normal. It was fifteen minutes later that he came out looking dejected and no Konoha headband.

" _Ridiculous!",_ I thought to myself. " _The one person who actually deserves to wear it is not allowed to"_

Running to him, I pulled him into an immensely huge hug.

"They told me to do the Bunshin.", he said. "Obviously, it came out all weird looking and half dead. I told them that it was the only jutsu that I had trouble performing and that I could perform the other academy jutsu. They considered it and allowed me to perform them at any order that I saw fit, but I think the nerves got to me. I failed to do all four."

"Don't worry Naruto, we can go to sensei for a second chance. I'll vouch for you. I know how hard you've been training."

"You don't need to do that for me. I just need to be alone now."

"No. You don't. Come back home now. We'll talk to sensei tomorrow"

"NO!", he shouted and jumped off of the nearest window. Jumping from terrace to terrace, I tried to follow, but after a few buildings the guy just jumped down. That was when I realized that he had a lot of hidey-holes all over Konoha and that I'd lost him.

"YOU RETURN HOME BY SEVEN OR IT'S NO FOOD FOR YA TONIGHT!", I shouted to the apparently empty street in front of me.

Later that evening, Iruka came knocking.

Correction. Banging.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

"DAISUKE! SASUKE! I SWEAR IF NARUTO'S IN THERE YOU LOT ARE IN HUGE TROUBLE!"

Since it was a long day, Sasuke and I both agreed that we'd skip our evening training and get some rest. Out of which we were rudely awakened.

"What?", I asked slightly irritated at the haggard looking individual that was Iruka who was standing in front of me at the door.

"Naruto's stolen a very important artefact that could affect village security and is, as of now, absconding."

" _Idiot!",_ I thought to myself. " _I thought that I told you to think before doing anything"_

"Wait right here. I'm coming with you."

Before he had a chance to protest I ran in and pulled over a T-shirt got my gear and called out," Sasuke! I'm going out for some grocery! Keep the door locked and stay safe!"

After I heard the HN that would signify his acknowledgement, I ran out of the house along with Iruka as he updated me on the situation.

"Naruto apparently broke into the Hokage mansion and stole a very important artefact. Most astounding is the fact that he took out Hokage-sama and ran off with it. Since, we have to assume that he is hiding right now we have to cover the forests fully.", he explained. "Daisuke, your Sharingan would be extremely helpful for scouting in the dark and picking out any abnormalities. Once we reach the forests activate them and be on the lookout for anything. It could be something as simple as a chakra discharge, so keep your eyes open. Got it?"

"Hai sensei", I replied.

First we started off with the forests that was opposite to the academy, which was used for small field trips and jutsu demonstrations. After scanning the place thoroughly, we decided that he wasn't here and that we needed to move. So next, we moved on to the Hashirama trees behind the Hokage monument. Still, no success. By this time it was close to midnight and Sasuke was probably worried.

I thought for sometime as to where he might be. It has to be in an area that is isolated. Also, for Mizuki to make a quick escape, it had to be pretty close to the gates or the walls of Konoha.

Realising this, I went up to the highest vantage point, one of the third's hairs and scanned the village.

" _There!",_ I thought.

Close to the direction of the west gate, I saw a pretty huge discharge of chakra that was close to the old abandoned school building.. I informed Iruka of this and we took off in top speed. Reaching the place, I could see the telltale signs of Naruto's training. He looked pretty roughed up and had scratches all over his hands and face.

"Hehe", he laughed sheepishly, scratching the back of his head. "You've always been able to find me sensei, Daisuke"

"IDIOT! Do you have any idea as to how much trouble you are in right now?!", he barked. "How on earth did you learn of that scroll?!"

"Mizuki sensei told me.", he replied genuinely. "He said that if I mastered the first jutsu that the scroll had, I'd graduate."

"Mizuk-?"

I became aware of a whizzing sound. Iruka pushed me to the ground and slew of kunai and shuriken pinned him to the tree behind us. A look of understanding passed through his face.

"Naruto! Whatever you do, do not give that scroll to Mizuki!", he shouted.

"Tch, you've always been the perceptive one Iruka. But tonight, that is going to cost the demon's and an innocent kid's life. Will you be able to live with yourself knowing you brought that on? Not that you have very long to live anyway."

From my stand point, that sounded very true. From what I could see, he had a kunai to the shoulder and a shuriken to the knee and was struggling to stand.

"Yo Naruto, I have some very important information to pass on to you. Have you ever wondered why it is that everyone in the village hates you? That every time you pass someone yells demon and during the 10th of October each year you are beaten half to death?"

Naruto looked at him with a look of morbid curiosity and slight horror.

"H-how do you know about all of that?", Naruto asked, his voice quivering.

"NO Mizuki!", Iruka exclaimed. "You know that even saying it is punishable by death!"

Nevertheless, he went on.

"You know of the kyuubi attack and that it was defeated by your personal hero the fourth Hokage right? What the elders and everyone here above 25 years of age conveniently forgot to tell you was that, the Hokage didn't defeat it. He _sealed it._ Into _you."_

Naruto's eyes then went wide. And then he looked down

Mizuki then threw a fuuma at Naruto. I was ready for this and thwarted the attack before Iruka could stupidly get impaled.

When Iruka saw this, he was shocked.

"How did-"

"I know that you were going to leap to Naruto's aid? Well, I know how a teacher thinks of his students sensei", I said smirking.

"Why?", came Naruto's voice behind us. "Even though you know that I am a demon, why are you protecting me?"

I whapped him in the back of the head. And then hugged him. "Because that's what friends do. And besides you are NOT a demon. I don't see any tails that are bringing forth cyclones and tsunamis. So there"

While this was going on, Mizuki was fuming. Knowing that his plan had failed and desperate, he came to attack us.

"SPLIT!", I shouted.

The three of us split in three different directions and were running at top speed.

 **-WITH IRUKA-**

 _"Where could they have gotten to? Wait is that me? So that's how he's playin it huh?"_

 **-WITH DAISUKE-**

 _"Dammit. I have to find him and fast. Ah, there he is"_

"Naruto we'll go together. We have to find Iruka sensei and get back to the village as fast as possible."

While we were scanning the forest, we found him.

"Quick Naruto! Give me the scroll! I'll take it to the Hokage!"

And received the mother of all punches right in the gut.

"How could you Naruto?", Mizuki asked henge lifting. "How could have found out that I wasn't Iruka?"

With a puff of smoke that had me coughing, a gravelly, kinda cocky voice behind me replied ,"Cause I am Iruka."

Sitting with his back to a tree and supporting his injured shoulder and a cloth tied to his bloody knee along with a log that was the henged scroll, Iruka never looked so _badass_ before.

" _So, I got the fake huh?"_ , I thought amused.

Snarling, Mizuki was about to launch an offense at us, when he received the _second_ mother of all punches straight at the gut.

"You hurt my friends, I'll pay you back a thousand times over!", Naruto thundered.

Smirking Mizuki spat out," And how are you going to accomplish that, demon?"

" _Wrong choice of words idiot",_ I thought.

"Like THIS! _KAGE BUNSHIN NO JUTSU!"_

Lots of Narutos filled up the clearing we were in, smiling threateningly or just looking at Mizuki sadistically. It was the beat down of a century. Mizuki had no chance and was beaten to a bloody, alive looking red mush.

When we reached Iruka to tend to his wounds, he asked Naruto to close his eyes and remove his goggles. He did so. Then, Iruka removed his forehead protector and tied it around Naruto's head. Naruto grasping what was going on gasped and opened his eyes.

"It gives me great honour to announce you as an official genin of Konohagakure. Your team assignments will be in a week. Use this week as you see fit. That is all. ", he announced tears coming out of his eyes.

"IRUKA SENSEI!", Naruto cried hugging him fiercely.

 **-ONE WEEK LATER-**

"I still can't believe that you slept through the whole night, Sasuke. You don't love your brother very much do you?", I complained.

"Mah, mah. Don't be a drama queen Daisuke. I was really tired that evening and fell to a deep sleep. So sue me."

"I think I will.", I huffed. I then noticed that Iruka had entered the class. I motioned for Sasuke and Naruto to be quiet. But the others, oblivious of his entering the class, went on chattering. Tick marks slowly began developing on his head. Finally losing patience he roared with the big head genjutsu of his," WILL YOU QUIET DOWN?!"

The class quitened down instantly.

"Ahem, now I know that all of you are excited but please maintain some decorum. Before, I announce the teams I want to tell you people something. This was the first class that I'd ever handled and was quite the adventure. It makes me immensely proud to say that all of you graduated."

The mood instantly became more sentimental.

"You're all my pride and joy. And if you ever have anything troubling you, don't forget that there is an academy teacher waiting to give you hints and help solve it. Now on to the team assignments…."

Noticing the team assignments I found that the team assignments were exactly same as canon. Teams seven, eight, nine even though he hadn't announced them and ten had Sasuke, Naruto and Sakura; Kiba, Shino and Hinata; Neji, Lee and Tenten; Shikamaru, Choji and Ino respectively.

"Team twelve! Hagoromo,Kazumi! Uchiha,Daisuke! And Yamanaka,Akira!"

So, mine was team twelve, and my team mates are Akira Yamanaka and Kazumi Hagoromo. Akira looks like a chibified version of Inoichi and Kazumi is a very sincere girl I knew from when I was little. The Hagoromo clan were staunch supporters of the Uchiha and went along with them to any battle, be it political or literal. Within Konoha they are considered our sister clan. The both of them turn towards each other and then look at me and smile, I nod and smile back.

" _Yes!",_ I thought to myself singing, " _No fangirls or freaks of any kind in my team_."

After assignments were completed, we went to our respective team mates to get acquainted with them better. Akira seems to be sincere and very outgoing. Kazumi is a bit demure but confident.

"So we're a team now huh?", I ask.

"Looks like it", Akira answered.

While we were talking the jonin slowly came and took their team to a training ground of their preference. Finally, it was down to teams seven and twelve. Thinking of it I went up to team seven and was in the process of introducing ourselves when the door banged and a voice said in a sickeningly sweet voice.

"Ooh getting all cozy and friendly eh maggots. How nice. Now team twelve to training ground forty."

I paled and looked back. AND I SWEAR. If there was an intermediate level to the mangekyo I would've achieved it right then and there. Because standing in front of us was none other than Anko Mitarashi.

" _Oh shit oh shit oh shit",_ was what was going through my mind as my team was treading out to training ground forty

 **A/N:** Sorrrrryyyyy! _/\\_. I had to go to my native village and had no internet access there T_T. So as a compensation, I've released the fifth chapter and what was supposed to be the sixth chapter along with this. I'm so sorry again. Changing tracks. How do you like this idea? :D Anko being their jonin sensei I mean.

Pen down your thoughts in the reviews. Toodles :]


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary:** In the last chapter, Naruto moves in with the Uchiha brothers. Naruto fails his exam and finds out about the kyuubi from Mizuki. But his teacher and friend stick with him and thus emboldened Mizuki is beaten to a pulp by him. All team assignments are the same as that of canon and Daisuke's teammates are a Yamanaka clan member and a Hagoromo clan member. We left Daisuke almost shitting his pants as he finds out that Anko is his Jonin sensei.

 **Disclaimer:** I do not own Naruto. Kishimoto does. But Daisuke, Akira and Kazumi are mine.

"So, maggots. The hokage seems to think that this is an exercise that benefits Konoha as a whole. So, you are to tell me about yourselves" Anko declared.

"You brunette. You're up first." she continued pointing at me.

Before I could continue, Akira interjected. "Umm sensei?" What do you mean when you say tell you about ourselves? Could you go first?"

Then she started grinning madly, as if she expected this question. "Oh me?", she asked in a manner that could be considered sexy but was disturbing because she was licking her kunai then. "My likes include dango and alcohol. I'd be best at ease with a large bottle of spirit in a local bar and about start a brawl. And Konoha too. This village's ninja were good enough to adopt me when I was in a very bad place and something else that is not meant for your innocent ears.", she sniggered. We blushed. Then her face darkened. We all gulped. Releasing a fair amount of KI she continued," I hate traitors, doctors and especially a combination of the two and ain to bring a certain man to justice for all of his crimes against the Leaf." Brightening a bit and grinning, she then declared," The Konoha and dango loving sexy, single awesome kunoichi, Anko Mitarashi! So now you go!" she pointed at me.

"Hi all", I began a bit awkwardly," Name's Daisuke Uchiha. My likes include training, ramen and looking after people who are precious to me. I hope that in time you all grow to become a part of that circle too. My ambition is to become an accomplished Jonin of this village and bring back my brother home. I don't like fangirls and spinach. And that's it I guess.", I finished lamely.

"Claps all around maggots. That's a pretty honorable goal if you ask me, Daisuke. I admire your drive and reason for growing. Jumpy, you're next. Go."

"Hai sensei!", Akira exclaimed. "My name is Akira Yamanaka. My likes are my friends and the times that I spend with them. What I don't like is the fact that many people look at me as a small version of Inoichi-sama. I aim to be a version of myself that people can grow to like and respect."

"Very good, jumpy. With that burning fire propelling you, you will be a great asset to this team.", Anko praised. Beaming, he sat down in the middle. "Finally, the quiet one. Go."

Slowly, Kazumi got up. "My name is Kazumi Hagoromo. My likes include kenjutsu training with my older brother and spending time with my family and friends. I dislike people who aren't serious at what they do the most and my ambition is to keep getting better at whatever I do, no matter what, so I expect some very good sparring sessions with the two of you when we are a team!"

"If", Anko clarified.

"Whaddaya mean ' if ' ?!", Akira cried.

"Well, for every Genin team assigned to a Jonin sensei, Tokubetsu in your cases, a test is conducted the very next day to confirm that the team is indeed worthy enough to join the Konoha shinobi ranks."

"And what is the decisive factor sensei?" Kazumi asked.

Smiling evilly, she replied, "That is for me to know and for you to figure out. Come to the gates of training ground forty four tomorrow at ten and I'll give you the full details of the test."

We groaned. Correction Akira and I groaned, Kazumi looked at her coolly. I didn't know why Akira was groaning, but I was due to the fact that training ground forty four is none other than the forest of death aka worst place to train ever aka the deadly forest where even bugs are human sized.

" _Well. It's been a good life. All of my possessions are yours Sasuke. Except my room. Enter my room and I haunt you for life. And bring back Itachi safe and sound."_

That evening I made sure to empty my chakra as low as possible by sticking my butt on the side wall and continuing conversations with Naruto and Sasuke. When I started feeling a little faint, which was the signal that said that I was now consuming chakra that should only be used for vital body functions, I jumped down the wall and then I made Sasuke a salad and ramen for Naruto. As I sat down to eat my rice, I found it hard to eat as the both of them were snarfing down their food. Getting irritated, I went upto Sasuke and whapped him in the back of his head.

"Eat slowly. You'll choke. You're next Naruto", I barked. Instantly, the both of them slowed down and started eating quietly.

"You're not the boss of me ya know." Sasuke quietly said. "I know. But mum made me in-charge." I retaliated and sat down to eat my bowl of rice. I ate to my stomach's content and went to prepare for sleep.

"Naruto! Wake me up tomorrow before you leave!" I hollered from the first floor after brushing my teeth.

"Okay!" he shouted from below. Thus satisfied I let myself into my room and got lost in the abyss of my dreams. When I got up the next morning, the sun's rays were already streaming through my curtains and it was 9:45. Near my pillow was a note saying " _Wake up Daisuke. It's seven and I'm leaving_."

" _BLOCKHEAD!"_ I thought irritably. Quickly brushing my teeth and donning on shinobi gear, I rushed out of home. A quick look at the nearest street map showed T-44 at the other side of the village. I facepalmed.

" _Great. My first day and I'm late."_

Panting heavily I reached the ground at 10:05. I was surprised to find out that only Akira and Kazumi had made it. Anko was nowhere to be seen.

"Where's sensei?" I asked them.

"Hoi hoi! You knew that she was going to be late didn't you?!" Akira exclaimed, "I've been waiting here for a long time! Even she arrived only now!"

"She told us to be here by 10 and I was here by then. It's not my fault if you came stupidly early" Kazumi retorted. Akira huffed and looked ready to attack, when a kunai whizzed past Kazumi cutting her cheek and landed with a thump near Akira's feet.

"Unrest within the team already? I'm disappointed midgets." Anko tutted. "I'm now wondering if I should pass you as a team or not."

Kazumi stiffened. Akira face faulted, waving his hands he shouted, " No, no sensei! We were just practicing for a skit is all. Hehehe" he ended grinning sheepishy. "And I was born only a few weeks back." Anko snorted.

"Moving on. Your test is obviously a field test and will last for two hours." she continued. "Within the next fifteen minutes I will open the gates to the ground, before which I would've hidden myself in there somewhere." she explained grinning evilly, pointing to the dense canopy of trees behind her. "Your objective will be to find me in the next two hours, which will be 12:30. You'd better hope that you'll be able to find me before then, else it's back to the academy for y'all." she said getting serious.

She waited with us for the next fifteen minutes. And it was the most awkward fifteen minutes of my life. Kazumi would glare at Akira and he'd sweat drop, looking to the ground or sometimes grin awkwardly at her. Anko noticed this pattern, got up from her sitting place and whapped the two in their heads and sat back down.

"Get your acts right. I want your skit to be the best in all of Konoha" she mumbled. When the fifteen minutes were up, she got up from her place and opened the gates to the training ground.

"Go get me!", she snickered crumbling into dust.

" _Earth release huh?. I thought that she was a fire release shinobi. Go figure."_

We entered the training ground and stood gaping at the insanely tall trees that were all round us. "I'm up for any ideas that you two might have, cause I'm stumped on how to find her in this… well whatever it is." I declared.

"Umm. I might have an idea or two." Akira mumbled. Kazumi looked like she was about to say something when I interjected, "Go ahead Akira."

"I can perform my clan jutsu considerably well and control it with ease. My range would be about 400 metres before I start losing control of the jutsu. It will be a two-step plan…"

 **-THIRTY MINUTES LATER-**

"I still have my doubts about this plan," Kazumi continued.

"You're acting extremely childish Kazumi-san. What is it about Akira that you do not like?" I queried, carrying Akira on my back.

"Me?! Childish" she cried. "He's the one who's childish. He treats this as some sort of joke and – mmph"

"Shhh! Do you want Anko to find out our positions and change her position?" I whispered angrily, removing my other hand from her mouth. She was blushing madly. "I apologize. Our being quiet is what this plans pivots around, and I urge you to stay quiet Kazmui-san. This is hard with Akira's body weight as it is"

Far above us, an eagle cried. That was our cue. From the tree top where we were hidden we jumped to the ground, following the direction of the sound. And true to his word, Akira had found out Anko with the eagle's sharp eyesight. She sat there on the fork of the tree picking her teeth with a dango stick. Laying Akira carefully to the ground Kazumi and I went and confronted her.

"Heh, thought that it would be so easy to hide in here. You guys found me after all." she grinned. "Not." and started crumbing. "Here's your first hint. There are two more of us excluding boss."

 _"Wow. Right on the money",_ I thought. " _Way to go Akira."_

We went back to where I'd hidden Akira's body and continued to stay there until the eagle signaled us again. Ten minutes later another signal came. This time though, we waited for signs that showed if she was the original or not seeing that we had ample amount of time. This was my part of the plan. The thing with us humans is that we get easily bored. If she was an earth clone she'd mostly be sitting there looking at the world around her excitedly, since she was a pure chakra construct made out of earth. And the Anko in front of us was displaying all of these traits.

I signaled no back to the eagle and once again it took off. It was a long time and took about an hour and he went more than the range he specified. Luckily on our next trip we found the original. She was _Bored_ with a capital B. About to fall asleep in fact, eyes droopy and looking all sleepy like.

Before I could signal Akira to come to us, Kazumi shot forward taking out her tanto and started engaging Anko. Dumb thing to have done. "Hothead I see." Anko taunted. Snarling, Kazumi went on the offence. Her strikes reaching a new level of speed and ferocity. Thing was Anko was nothing to sneeze at. She held on her own with a _kunai._ Whatever thrust that came she parried with the broadside or dodged. Jumping upwards, Kazumi came down on Anko viciously, striking down. The force was high enough to break the kunai. Before, the kunai's broken tip could reach the ground Anko already had another one at was parrying away. Slowly though, Kazumi was tiring visibly.

"Getting tired yet midget?" Anko asked. "You should be careful, what you scratch yourself against. I notice a scrape against your cheek that looks almost like I did it. I don't know what I coat my weapons with, so you'd better hope it wasn't one of my more lethal concoctions. Well I feel that this has gone on for long enough." She went through a very familiar set of handseals and I got shocked.

"Watch out Kazumi!" I called, "She's going to use a summon!" But the resulting jutsu was different

" _Demonic Illusions : Descending of hell technique",_ she cried out. Suddenly Kazumi stopped moving, gaze deadpan and not moving. " _Genjutsu?"_ I thought incredulously. " _Dammit Akira you should've signaled if you were going to go so far! I'm not very good at planning but I hope this works"_

In no time Anko found us, but Akira was still down. I engaged her taking the defensive. I knew that I had to buy time and activated the Sharingan. "Getting serious finally eh midget? Well let's see what those fancy eyes can do." Just as I had expected, following her movements became easier with the eyes but still her movements were fluid enough to avoid my attacks. The same thing was with me though. Since, I knew where each attack was going to land, I was able to dodge and keep her at bay. But, I was running tired fast and running out of chakra.

" _I hope this was enough boss"_ I thought and poofed.

 **-WITH THE ORIGINAL-**

" _Good enough. There Kazumi's aware now. Akira's awake too. We should be able to hold her off as a team now"_

"Good strategy midget, making two shadow clones and disguising one of them as Jumpy. Very good indeed." I heard Anko's voice behind me. I turned along with Akira and Kazumi getting ready to fight again.

"Nah. No need to get so serious. Y'all pass. Although I had my doubts when she came charging, I see that it was to buy time for you two. Good job today. Report tomorrow at seven to training ground forty. We'll get our mission then" she chuckled to herself.

I rolled my eyes. I knew why she was chuckling. My poor teammates didn't. They were ecstatic on passing the test and becoming official genin. Only I knew the stuff we'd be doing at least for a month now. D-ranks. Eugh.

 _"Well, they have to be done by someone. Why not the fledgling ninja of the village?"_ I thought to myself.

 **A/N:** So that's the sixth chapter done :D. ArtemisKirara7 that's why I wanted Anko as his teacher. And TonyRexton I hope you come back whenever you receive an update :D. Others, any thoughts or improvements? Review or PM. For now, toodles :)


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N:** Dear Guest, I'm sorry you feel that way. But next time, please mention why you thought that this was garbage. If it's my writing style I can change it. However, the story is something that I don't intend to change for the sake of the readers. Hope you come back :). Moving on, I will most probably deciding the pairing soon although it will be waaay late into the story, most probably when it reaches the end of part 1. I'll open a poll soon, so be sure to check and vote :D.

 **Summary:** In the last chapter, we were introduced to Daisuke's teammates Akira and Kazumi. Kazumi is very frosty to Akira and does not seem to respect him at all. Anko's test involved team twelve to find her as she hid herself in The Forest of Death. But the catch was, she'd made five earth clones of herself one which opened the gates and another that they found within the forest. With Akira's and Daisuke's sound planning they locate the original. In the ensuing fight, Anko is surprised and impressed with their teamwork and passes them.

 **Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto. Daisuke, Akira and Kazumi are mine though.

"Well the past few weeks have been boring." I told her training done and cooling down "It's all D-ranks, D-ranks and more D-ranks. Blegh. I mean finding that damn cat could be considered training but come on! Baby-sitting? Weeding gardens?" I asked incredulously.

Hinata giggled. It was very surprising how amazingly friendly and open she could be when Naruto wasn't around. "I'm sure that it is training too Daisuke. Patience is a virtue after all."

"Yeah, yeah. But this training beats that hands down though. I get to work with _Chakra_ and get to _fight_. Can't do that with a baby. So the day after the same time? It's getting pretty late." I asked.

"Sure Daisuke." she got up and went to the training ground entrance where Ko was waiting. I waved at them. She waved back and he glared at me. I sighed. This had been going on for the past three weeks.

 **-FLASHBACK-**

 **-THAT EVENING-**

"Did you see that Sasuke?!" Naruto was chattering excitedly. "My heroism passed us the test!" Sasuke hmphed. "You almost cost us our ninja careers Dumbo. Wasn't it you who tried to eat the lunches kept separately for all of us?"

"Heheheh" he grinned sheepishly rubbing the back of his hair.

"So how'd you guys pass?" I asked although I knew the answer. "Well, after he beat Naruto thoroughly and went Genjutsu on Sakura's ass" he smirked "he came to me for ninjutsu. He did look shocked that I was able to produce such a huge fireball, but I let my guard down. He hid underneath and was able to trap me" His demeanour darkened and looked towards Naruto and continued," Then this dunderhead here had the bright idea of eating the lunches that our sensei - Kakashi's his name - set for the three of us. By that time, the time required for us to tag him was over. He'd tied Naruto to a pole in the training ground. In the discussion that followed, he told us that we weren't fit to get back to the academy. We were devastated. He explained that the main objective of the test was to test our team work of which we failed terribly, I accept.", he grinned sheepishly.

"He then made us eat the food in front of Naruto, saying that we shouldn't share the food with him, else we'd fail. You shoulda seen him. He was close to crying." Sasuke laughed. Naruto huffed. "I wasn't close to crying. I was hungry and the sounds came from my stomach!", Naruto shouted. "Yeah right. I couldn't stand to see him cry. So, I handed him my lunch. And that annoying girl Sakura followed. It's like she can't do anything independently. Kakashi chose that moment to appear all badass looking and told us that we'd passed, because we didn't follow his orders!", Sasuke laughed, "How did yours go?" he asked.

I explained the events of the morning to them, while they listened on. "Not bad bro. You guys are way better than my team. But not for long.", he smirked. "We'll catch up to you in no time."

"We'll see", I replied. "Now, onto dinner and an early sleep. You need all the energy you can get. Tomorrow's your first day as ninja after all."

 **-THE NEXT DAY-**

I showed up at training ground forty at 6:50 and was apparently the first person there. So I found the nearest tree and waited. Exactly at 6:55 Kazumi showed up in a heated argument with Akira.

" _So, what else is new?_ ", I thought to myself getting angry.

"-would've gone better if you'd just waited!", Akira hollered. "Yeah well, I couldn't wait for you to get your lazy ass up!", she retaliated. It was at that precise moment that-

"IT"S TOO EARLY IN THE MORNING FOR THIS SHIT!",I yelled. They then looked at me owlishly. "Resolve your fights in your own time. I like it when we have some _semblance_ of a team." The quiet continued. "Thank you" I said fuming.

Anko chose that moment to come and greet us. In typical Anko fashion. Jacket open, low-density mesh underneath and a kunai in hand. "This is going to be the norm I see. Well, anyways I'm not going to butt in on strange team bonding if it bloody works. So, this is going to be your schedule for the foreseeable future. Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays are going to be mission days. Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays are training days. Sundays, you're free. Let's go to the Hokage's office for team twelve's first mission."

"Yes sensei!", Akira declared excitedly.

"Whoa, whoa one more thing. I looked into your files and I found out that I'm just eight years older than you midgets. So calling me sensei makes me feel old.", she shuddered. "Just call me Anko or Anko-sama or Your highness who rules the domain of my existence, will do too.", she cackled. We sweat dropped.

"I think I'll stick with Anko", I said. The others nodded along.

"Damn, my minions don't respect me", she said pouting. "Anyways, on to the Hokage's now." Getting near the mansion, Akira was getting excited. "So what mission do you have in mind sens-" Anko looked at him sharply. "Anko. I mean Anko"

 _"Heh",_ I thought smirking. On reaching the office, Anko took us to the main mission room. "Since this is your team's first mission, the Hokage will himself hand over a mission scroll to you." Going up to the secretary, she declared "Team twelve and their sensei, reporting for mission number 1." The secretary chucked and Anko herself smirked. "The Hokage's free. You are free to collect your mission." Akira kept jumping around, even the stoic Kazumi seemed earnest.

Entering the office, the Hokage looked at us good-naturedly and chuckled. "Here for your first mission I presume?" Anko nodded, stifling her laughter. "Now, now Anko I still remember how excited you were her for your first mission." Her mood became sour. "Okay let's see. Hmm no. No. No way, that client is definitely lying. Maybe this, nah team ten can have that. Oh, what do we have here. This is perfect for you." he smiled, handing the scroll over to Akira. He excitedly opened the scroll and reading the first two lines, facefaulted. Getting up, he handed the scroll to Kazumi. Her eyebrow started twitching. "Anko, if this is some sort of sick joke, I swear-", I grabbed the scroll from her.

"This client requests a D-rank mission, the details which entail walking the nin-dogs Senkomaru, Shiromaru, Aomaru, and Kiromaru from her kennel. On completion of this mission, the ninja/team is entitled to 2000 Ryo." I read out loud. "Meh, should be fun. Let's go team."

"Aren't you a bit bothered by the fact tha your first ninja duty is walking dogs?!", Akira shouted pointing his finger at me and waving it. "Nin-dogs", I corrected. "They are very intelligent and some are even known to talk. So, I advise you to _please_ not talk like that in front of them and besides I love animals nin or normal. Now, let's go."

Anko sweat dropped. " _He's a strange one. Bleh. As long as he performs, I'm okay with it._ " Kazumi glared at his retreating back. Akira looked on with his mouth open agape.

 **-TWO DAYS LATER-**

On training day, we met as usual at seven in the morning. Grinning at us, she declared, "Today, we'll be working on chakra control. The most basic form of this is walking up trees, bare-handed." Looking at her quietly, I went up to the nearest tree and climbed it. Anko looked at me mouth with her eyes widened. Kazumi followed. So, did Akira.

She grinned evilly, "This makes things waaay easier." We gulped. "The next is water walking." That too, the all of us had mastered. The control exercises then became more and more extreme. Akira failed at kunai tip balancing. Kazumi two steps later at senbon tip balancing. I failed at kunai tip twirling.

"Not bad, fancy eyes. There are only fifteen more exercises after which you can qualify to become a medic. All Hyuuga at Chunin level master pretty much this level. That tickle your interest?" Anko asked.

"Nah. I don't know, maybe. I have no patience to study to become a medic.", I drawled. "Hard-hitting's my style." I continued grinning.

"All of you very good!" Anko congratulated. "This makes things very more interesting for me. For now, we'll move on to team exercises."

I'd been toying with the idea of training with Hinata ever since the academy, but this piece of information got me intrigued. And a very dangerous idea started forming in my head. After training that day, I planned to execute the first phase of my plan.

Later that evening I walked up to the gates of the Hyuuga clan. Gulping, I shouted, "I request an audience with Hinata!"

"You can always knock you know?", the guard said, irritably. "Wait, I'll call and check if Hiashi-sama is free." I waited in front of the gates a little bit intimated, I admit. But I couldn't go back, especially after that person said that he'd be getting Hiashi.

A little while later the gates opened. "Come on in." the guard motioned. "I'll take you to Hiashi-sama." I walked in and followed him. After passing through a series of confusing rooms, I finally entered Hiashi's room. The man looked pretty much as I'd expected him to be. A grouch and a scowly face.

"May I know why you wanted the village to know that you wanted to see my eldest daughter?"

"I want to train with her. More specifically I want to improve my chakra control."

"Won't your Jonin sensei teach you all of this?"

"She was the one who gave me the idea of approaching a Hyuuga for chakra control."

"And why Hinata when we have the more accomplished Neji? And if, a very big if indeed, I accept what do I as her father and a business person?"

"I want to increase my chakra control true. But in return, I can train her. I was the one who trained Naruto and look at him now. His control's way better that what it would have been if he'd been only using Academy techniques. I can increase her stamina and hitting power too."

"You're avoiding my first question. Why not Neji?"

"To be honest, Neji's a bit of an ass and he's got nothing that I can teach him."

"I appreciate that honesty of yours, but the language is making me have my doubts."

"I am sorry. Okay then, may we make a deal?"

"What do you have in mind?"

"I'll train with Hinata for a month. I will no doubt improve. Have a spar with her to judge her skills. Along with that to prove that I've improved, I'll spar with Neji. If on both accounts, we've improved, I'll continue with the training. Else we can call it off."

"No need to be so formal young one. I have nothing to lose but lots to gain if what you say is true. I will allow this training.", then he flashed me a smile. I was surprised.

"Don't look so shocked. I love both of my daughters and have made many mistakes with that boy's life, whom you called an ass. Soon after, my wife passed. Whenever I look at her I am reminded of him too. That is no excuse I know, but that is why I am so hard towards her. She has to know what little weakness can do to a shinobi. And I think that, I forced her too hard and that, that is why she's so different from other children. If there is even a little improvement it is all on you. No need for the test."

 **-END FLASHBACK-**

 **-THE NEXT DAY-**

"So you and Hinata huh?", Sasuke taunted, smirking.

"Ass. It's not like that. It's just like training with you or Naruto"

"That's what they all say in the beginning." he laughed. "Don't worry I won't tell anyone." He said running out I threw my shoe at him and hit him squarely in the head. He turned and threw it back at me. I caught it, laughed and prepared to get ready to get for missions.

 **-LATER THAT DAY-**

"J, do you see the target? Confirm.", I asked

"Affirmative L, I do.", J exclaimed.

"Don't shout you idiot! Do you want the target to find out that we are at our present location?!" Q whispered angrily.

"The target's not noticed. Don't worry Q", SA said.

"Yes SA", Q retorted.

"I don't see why I can't be L. I could do this way better", J mumbled.

"You were L last time and you failed horribly!" Q scolded.

"But, Q! That was baby-sitting!" J exclaimed.

"And yet you set fire to the people's bedroom and upped the rank of the mission and we completed our first C-rank. How you managed to do that I'll never know.", Q declared.

"Heheheh"

"Shut up J and Q else it's more poison training for you two!",

"Yes SA miss!"

"Why do I have to be the only sane one here?", L moaned. "Anyways, is everyone in position?"

"Yes L!", three voices came in unison.

"Then capture!" I ordered.

As one, team twelve surrounded the cat. Noticing them, it tried to run, but was surrounded easily and captured.

"Confirm that It is indeed the Daimiyo's wife's cat." I asked.

"Pink bow in the right ear. Yes it is the same cat.", Akira said, holding the poor thing by it's neck at arm's length.

"Akira! You don't hold a living creature like that!", I took the cat from him and stroked it.

We headed back to the mansion, got the mission success stamp and delivered Tora to Lady Shijmi. As she hugged it, Akira had a gleam in his face. I snorted.

"Hey midgets, I have something to talk to you people about. Come tomorrow a bit early alright. You might want to hear this. Dismissed"

"Yes/Hai Anko!" the three of us called.

- **LATER THAT EVENING-**

"So, what do you think she wants to tell you Daisuke?!", Naruto exclaimed jumping up and down.

"I really have no idea Naruto. I'm just as clueless as you are", I replied smiling. "Why don't you join me here?", I asked patting to a part of the wall next to me.

"Okay", he replied grinning.

"Sasukeeeee! Time for chakra training.", I shouted. "You'd better plant your ass here with us!"

"Coming!", he shouted from above.

Running down, he came up to us and sat down with us and started chattering with was at times like this that I hoped that everything remains as it was, but I knew that it never happened that way.

 **A/N:** Here's the next chapter :D. I've always felt that Hinata is a strong character although Kishimoto didn't show her growth well. First in The Forest of Death and then Neji's win against her. What I liked most though was what she did in the Pein fight. Even Sakura, who's supposed to be a _Tsunade's student_ , didn't have enough courage to come face him in frontal combat, but she did. I want y'all to see what I see in Hinata too. What does Anko want to tell them? And coming up is the Wave arc. Review or PM. Toodles :]

 **Edit:** So, sorry guys :/. I usually read through once, but I was way too sleepy this time and uploaded a not very good spell checked chapter


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N:** People, I understand that I am new to writing Fan Fiction and that my way of writing is way less than ideal, but flames like **"Sakura Hinata in every way. Just so you know. Now go kill yourself, loser"** are a bit too much **.** What are you trying to tell me? I really don't get it. My English is a bit bad, so you'll have to elaborate as to what you want to tell me. And one that made me laugh. Thanks Guest you made my day xD. I want to reply to you all, so I recommend that you at least create a profile in ff.n. Moving on, 746 hits for the last two chapters *_*. Love you all. Now, onto the story. I'm planning on making Daisuke summon cats, since I like cats, well more like leopards, lions and tigers. And a small cat like Pakkun, a small one that helps with stealth and infiltration.

 **Summary:** In the last chapter, Daisuke and team complete their first D-rank. He meets with Hiashi and gets a chance to train with Hinata, for two things. One, to increase Hinata's endurance and stamina. Another, to refine his chakra control. He is observed to be very good with animals as he enjoys his first mission, which asks his team to walk nin-dogs, and in the Tora rescue mission, he scolds Akira to hold Tora properly. Their team completes their first C-rank, when Akira accidentally sets fire to a couple's bedroom, whose baby they were supposed to be baby-sitting. At the end, Anko informs team twelve that she wants to tell them something.

 **Disclaimer:** I do not own Naruto, Kishi does. Daisuke, Akira and Kazumi are mine though.

"So, you midgets might be wondering what the thing was, that I wanted to tell you was. Right?" Anko asked. We nodded. "Well, the old man informed me that this year, the Chuunin exams are going to be held in Konoha."

"Yappari! Will you be entering us in Anko?!", Akira exclaimed excitedly.

"That's what I'm here to talk to you about." Anko continued. "Since, I know each and every nook and cranny of Training Ground Forty Four; he's asked me to be the examiner for the stage that involves survival training." Images of Orochimaru biting Sasuke, Hinata almost drowning and Naruto in a snake's stomach flashed in my mind. " _Not this time you bastard.",_ I thought to myself darkly. "Hey, hey fancy eyes! Listen to me while I'm speaking to you!", Anko scolded.

"Yes, right. Sorry Anko, continue. Spaced out for a moment there." I apologized.

"Now, as I was saying, since I'm an examiner and you three are genin, it would be unfair for the other students, if I stayed your sensei for the time when I prepare for the exams. So, I proposed two solutions from which y'all have to select one.", Anko informed us.

"The first is, you three can split up and get assigned to the three separate teams that passed out with your batch and attend the exam as team twelve. Or, you could skip the exams this time and help me prepare the training ground for the test. Take your time, decide and give me your decision tomorrow. In the meantime, I have to go and prepare for the test. See you tomorrow minions.", Anko waved and shunshinned.

"So, what do you guys think? We go for exams or separate?", I asked. " _I personally would like it if we stayed and went for the exams next year,"_ I thought to myself.

"Ne ne, what are you talking about Daisuke?! We're a team! We stick together!", Akira scolded me.

"Although, I loathe to agree with this idiot here, in this case I agree.", Kazumi said. "We can take the exams anytime. But, each team is unique. If we go to other teams, we'll lose our dynamic and affect their team dynamic too. I say we stick together." Akira nodded along.

"I guess that it's decided then.", I said with a sense of finality. "We take the test next year."

"Yay!" Akira shouted jumping. I laughed at his antics and Kazumi sweat-dropped.

"It's not something to get so excited over you know…", Kazumi chided him.

"Let him enjoy Kazumi, it's his way of saying that he cares.", I told her. "I'll go find Anko and inform her of our decision. We'll go out and enjoy our day off today.", I grinned. "Alright then, we'll wait here. I'll try to calm Akira down.", she laughed.

I then went to Training ground 44 to inform Anko of our decision. On the way, I saw Team Seven near the gates. "Hey guys!", I shouted. All of them, including Kakashi turned to see me. "Going out on a mission?", I asked.

"Yep. We were assigned a C-Rank to guard this bridge builder here and are on our way to Wave.", Naruto explained. "This will be the first time we're going out the village!", he said excitedly. " _Wave huh?"_ I thought to myself critically. I went up to Kakashi. "Kakashi I presume." He looked at me with that annoying one eye of his. "And what if I am?"

"Look after my brothers, else you'll have me to answer to!", I said to him. In the background I could hear Sasuke's and Naruto's squawks of protests, but I focused on Kakashi. "Alright then.", he eye crinkled at me. "They'll be under my best care."

"Hn" I smirked at him. And face palmed. " _Guess that it IS an Uchiha trait."_ I thought to myself. "Okay get going you two. Return home safe and sound." I said to Naruto and Sasuke. "You too, Sakura.", I bade goodbye to team seven and the bridge builder; and continued on my way.

Reaching Training ground Forty Four, I went to the only place where I knew she'd be at the moment. Near the Western gates, where the famous training tower was located. Only now, it had to refurbished for the examinees of the chuunin exam. And sure enough, she was there in front of the tower barking orders to many chuunin changing the look of the ground floor with sofas and what-not.

"Anko!", I called. Looking at me, she paused her work and came towards me. "What is it midget?"

"We've come to a decision. We are going to stick as a team and attend the exams next year.", I informed.

She smiled. "Okay then. Come here tomorrow, I'll mostly have work for you people to do."

"Okay then. The team is going for lunch. Coming?", I asked.

"Nah, lots of work to do, lots of places to go. Y'all enjoy, cause come tomorrow I'll be working you to the bone.", she cackled sadistically. I gulped. " _What a mad woman!_ ", I thought to myself.

Reaching our training ground, I was surprised to see Akira and Kazumi talking civilly. "What's this?!", I asked them shocked. "Who are you two and what have you done with my team-mates?!"

 **-LATER THAT EVENING-**

It had been a long time that the house was occupied only by me. Come to think of it, this was the _first time_ that the house was occupied only by me. Since I had nothing better to do, I started cleaning the house. Two hours later, I'd finished Sasuke's, Naruto's and my room and went for the corridors. Cleaning corridors was a sonuvabitch. You think that you've swept floor of dust when magically new granules of dust appear. I followed the dust path to where it lead. And reached the forbidden area of the house.

 **-FLASHBACK-**

 ** _"_** _Are you sure you want this place to be cordoned off? I'm sure a wooden door that is always kept locked would do.", the Third hokage explained kindly. "Moreover, it could serve as storage space. Whatever you don't want now, you can store in there."_

 _"Alright Hokage-sama", I agreed._

 **-FLASHBACK END-**

I got the keys to the huge wooden doors and unlocked them. Pushing them open, I reached the corridor that had the study of my dad and our parents' bedroom. I'd left their bedroom untouched, but converted the study into a storage area. I opened the door to my parents' bedroom. It was like a room modeled after horror movies of yore. Covered in dust, cobwebs everywhere and bed looking very moldy. I brought the cleaning things and started cleaning the room. Dust swept off. Cobwebs untangled. Bedsheets thrown and replaced by new ones. I set a reminder to coat the bed with turpentine. This in itself took a very long time and by the time I was finished, the time was eight and I started getting hungry.

After eating, I went to tackle the storage room. Boxes and boxes of stuff were there. My dad's things I didn't care much about. But my mum's things I took time and went through. I cried when I found my baby blanket and rummaging through the box some more, found a photo she'd taken with her team. She was in the centre all smiley and had her fingers in the victory pose. To her left was Kushina Uzumaki, Naruto's mom and to her right was, if I'm not mistaken, Mikino Yamanaka, Ino's mom. Their sensei was a Jonin whose hair was a dashing silver and had tied it as a ponytail, all serious looking. Could've been Sakumo Hatake, I couldn't be sure. I then decided that I would be showing this to Naruto and Sasuke when they get back. I cleaned up in here too and in the far end of the room I found a huge box marked 'Special'. Curious as to what it might hold I opened it. And was awestruck. For I'd found my mother's Katana. It was a beautiful thing. Picking it up I read the inscription on the scabbard " _Only tender hands can wield Tender Hands"_. Un-sheathing it, I could tell that it was a blade of fine quality. Cause even after all these years, it caught the light and shone beautifully. Keeping it aside, I went through the rest of the box.

" _Ninjutsu scrolls, taijutsu scrolls, genjut- IS THAT A SUMMONING SCROLL?!",_ I thought to myself shocked. I'd heard of them and seen pictures of them, but this was the first time I was seeing one live. Picking it up, I saw _another one_ right beneath it. The one I'd picked read Taka-Ha (Hawk), the one below read Neko (cat). Taking these three treasures down stairs I decided," _One I'm giving Sasuke, the other I'm taking. I'll most probably give Sasuke a scroll when Naruto gets asked by Jiraya. Until then I'm gonna keep mum about these. But, I'm definitely going to ask Sasuke if he wants to use mum's sword when he gets back."_

I finished sweeping the corridor and locked the door once more. Feeling extremely tired, I then went to sleep.

 **-THE NEXT DAY-**

We reached training ground forty-four at seven, Anko was already there, getting the place ready for the work to be done. "Hmph", she huffed ,"Can't trust anyone to come early. Tch."

"Weren't we supposed to come by seven?" Akira asked me nervously. I couldn't blame him. Anko looked really, severely pissed. Looking at us she shouted," Finally! Someone shows up! Okay I have a request to make of you three. See those scrolls there?" We nodded. "I need to check out your calligraphy skills. Write down the phrase 'The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog' ten times and bring them to me. Use the ink on the table.", she waved her hand towards the office table, peering into a box.

Not wanting to piss her off more, we obediently went to the scrolls, finished the writing exercise quickly, and showed her. "Not so fast!", she snapped at us. "Take your time, I want to see some calligraphy not chicken scratches!"

By this time, chuunin were trickling in from the tower entrance. "WHAT TOOK YOU SO LONG?!", she started barking at them. Leaving her be, we now took our time. Slowly and steadily, we finished the job and went and showed her. "Not too shabby minions, although you Kazumi could do a little better. Now, take this and go to the hospital.", she said handing us a scroll. "They'll explain what I want you to do."

"Hai/Yes Anko!", we shouted. Wanting to do our jobs quickly, we ran all the way to the hospital. Reaching there, Kazumi handed over the scroll to the receptionist. She unfurled it and read through the contents of the scroll and looked at us coldly. "Come with me.", she motioned. We followed her into the hospital and led us to a room that looked like it was being used to take blood tests. She handed us three a few pieces of charcoal. We looked at her, not knowing what to do.

"Go on then! Crush them to a fine powder." she exclaimed. I got really confused. Not knowing where this was heading, we took out our tools and started grinding them to a fine dust. "Hm. Good enough. Now, I'll extract two tubes worth of blood from each of you. In the meanwhile, one of you must dissolve these in water to make a paste." I volunteered to make the paste, while the other two were getting their blood extracted ( don't try this at home dearies :) ). After this was done, she took the paste from me and examined it. "Good. Now I'll extract your blood." After that, she took us to a different room. Taking three separate mixing bowls, she explained," Take some of that paste and mix it with your blood. While doing so apply chakra by channeling chakra to your fingers." She showed us some chakra that she was channeling through hers. "After doing that, pour the mixture into the three separate bottles that I have marked for each of you. Then, you are free to leave."

She guided us through the mixing process and once it was done, she left the room. Thus finishing our job, we headed back to the training ground. "Hmmm…", Anko scrutinized. "A bit thick, but it'll do fine."

"Umm Anko, what will it be fine for?", Kazumi queried. "Why, your very first lesson in sealing of course.", she replied grinning. "Apparently I have to make four hundred scrolls of a seal, without which the second exam can't progress. So, you're going to do it."

I cringed. _"Approximately a hundred and thirty three per person and that doesn't include the proficiency of the seal!",_ I thought to myself. "These are summoning scrolls, so you'll have to have very good hand-writing and calligraphy skills so that the person being summoned doesn't get harmed in any manner while the seal activates. The seal part is going to be very small actually, since it is going to be only half a summon. A trap must be set though, for people who try and open the scroll without the other half. Most probably a small bomb detonation of some sort. I'll design the seal, but you'll have to go through this.", she concluded sadistically, throwing a massive looking book at each of us.

" _Fundamentals and Concepts of Sealing"_ , the title read. Curious, I went through the first few pages, and to my shock, I found it eerily similar to what could've been called computer programming in my old world. Only here instead of using computers, we used chakra. Next to me Akira was groaning and Kazumi was looking at the book as if it contained a very evil thing inside it.

"Your first assignment would be to create a seal that is capable of storing four inanimate objects. Deadline is four days. That is all for today. And I'll be expecting pretty decent seals from all of you. Now let me work.", she shooed us.

Reaching the gates of the training ground, I asked Akira and Kazumi if they had any idea about sealing. They shook their heads.

"Well, if we went through this book, I think a seal to store inanimate objects would be pretty simple. We could go to my house, so that we can design the seal together. She never said that we couldn't share notes after all." I smirked.

They nodded enthusiastically. So, we went to my house and got started on studying. Soon though, Akira started nodding off and Kazumi -hilariously- was already asleep. Going through the book, I found out that for any seal that is to store multiple items, a base matrix must be applied to which we had to assign the base density of the matter to be sealed. The book advised using air as the minimum density, below's density which if the user wanted to store something they should use a special seal. Since ,we were not going to store anything like that, I used the normal one.

 _"So for four items, a base matrix either in a two cross two or a four cross one format.",_ I thought. After constructing the seal using my ink and activated it. It glowed blue for a moment and faded. I tried it out by sealing the nearest pen and unsealing it. It worked perfectly.

"YES!", I jumped, startling Akira and Kazumi off of their slumber.

"Don't tell me-" Akira began

"THAT YOU'RE ALREADY DONE?!" the both of them finished wide eyed, their mouths shaped in 'O'.

"Heheheh", I grinned rubbing the back of my head. "It was pretty simple."

They scurried over and I taught them the process and how each part of the seal worked. After a few tries, they got it too. By the time we had three perfectly working seals, it was well into the night. We bade a good night to each other and I started preparing for dinner. Halfway through my meal, an ANBU agent came knocking.

"What can I do for you Neko-san?", I asked the cat faced ANBU.

"The Hokage wishes to see you right away.", she replied.

"May I finish my dinner?", I asked.

'Right now.", she insisted.

"Alright, Neko-san.", I cleared the table and put the dishes to wash and went out.

"Shall we?", I asked. She nodded.

When we reached the main streets of Konoha, we took to the rooves. In a matter of minutes, we reached the Hokage Mansion and she disappeared. I climbed the stairs to the Hokage's office and knocked.

"Enter", came Hiruzen's voice. I was surprised to see Anko and my team-mates present too.

"Good evening Hokage-sama, Anko.", I greeted them. Turning to my team-mates I waved,"Hey guys."

"Now that Daisuke's here let's get down to business.", the Hokage started. "Anko, I'll be needing you and your team to provide backup for Team seven in their first A-rank. Your exam duties will be taken care of by Genma in the meantime."

 _"Okayyy..",_ I thought. " _From what I can remember, Team seven never called for back-up."_

"They faced two Missing-nin from the Mist. Zabuza Momochi and Ameyuri Ringo. Kakashi was barely able to hold his own with Zabuza, when a hunter-nin killed him and Naruto and Sasuke were able to fend off Ameyuri. It seems like she fled once she knew mist hunter-nin were after her. But, Kakashi has his doubts as the hunter-nin didn't finish off the body.", Hiruzen explained.

I paled. " _TWO swordsmen?! Correction one swordsman and one swordswoman."_

If I remembered right Ameyuri Ringo wielded the Kiba blades capable of producing thunder.

"I need Team twelve to go to Wave and provide assistance wherever possible. Do I make myself clear?!", Hiruzen ordered.

"Crystal", Anko replied.

"Okay minions, here are your orders. We start from here in an hour. We should reach Wave by dawn. We can rest tomorrow in a hotel there or wherever Kakashi is staying."

"Hai/Yes Anko!", we replied.

Anxiously, I reached home as fast as possible. I grabbed my gear and rushed out. We were out of the village within the hour and travelling at a fast pace. I couldn't help but worry about them and wanted to reach there as fast as possible. Noticing this, Anko came upto me.

"Hey don't worry Fancy eyes. No casualties of any sort were reported.", Anko informed me kindly. "I promise you we'll get there by dawn."

"Thanks Anko-sensei", I replied looking determinedly away from her and at the path ahead. Anko remained quiet and I appreciated that. Until I physically saw that the both of them were safe and okay, I wasn't going to rest.

 **A/N:** There done :D. Like I promised, Wave starts from here. How'd you like it? Nice twist wasn't it? Views and comments in the reviews section or you can always PM me. So, for now Toodles :]


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N:** Exams over finally! :D And yes, sorry for the cliffie last chapter. I hadn't realized it until my friend pointed it out to me. So, without further ado, Onwards Readers !

 **Last Chapter:** Anko is given the task of managing the survival stage of the chuunin exams and begins preparations for it. Team twelve are given a choice to participate the next year or this time itself but will be separated for the duration for the time between the time they take the choice until the chuunin exams. The team decides to take the exams the next year and Daisuke goes and informs her of the same. Anko gives them a task on sealing in which, surprisingly, Daisuke is pretty efficient in. That night, team twelve is informed that team seven is in trouble in Wave with impending threats from two former Members of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist.

 **Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto. Daisuke, Akira and Kazumi are mine though.

"Stop! We rest here for forty five mnutes minions!" Anko ordered. We came to a stop and immediately Akira dropped heaving. Kazumi too, looked really tired. "Hmph!" Anko huffed. "Looks like I'll have to give you people more endurance training."

"I'm not very tired. I'll scout ahead." I offered. " _After all we still ARE in Fire country soil. There should be no real threat._ " I reasoned.

Anko gave me a significant look. "Fine. Report back when you finish. If you see something worth reporting come here immediately."

"Yes Anko." I replied.

Going ahead, I came across a part in our path where obviously a fight had occurred, if those shredded logs were anything to go by. Filing this away to report, I went a bit ahead and went in a circular arc, searching for potential traps or people who could pose a threat.

Not finding anyone, I went back to camp, where I found that Akira and Kazumi got into a fight again as he'd finished a whole canteen of water by himself. It might have been my state of mind or that I really was really thirsty, I glared at him.

"What'd I do!?", he exclaimed.

"You drank most of the water without sharing, idiot.", Kazumi supplied.

Chuckling at their childish behavior, I replied "Not to worry Kazumi. We are very close to a river. I'm sure that I can hold for a few more minutes. Say, where's Anko?", I asked.

She pointed at a tree branch where I could see her munching at a ration bar looking at the waning moon. As I approached her, she shifted a bit, patting on a part of the branch asking me to sit there. Reaching there, she asked "Report?"

"Remnants of a fight at about twelve minutes of running along the path. Scout revealed no other significant details.", I reported confidently.

"Not bad minion, but not good either. I'd sent an earth clone after you and you failed to sense it. You should watch your back too." she lectured.

"I'll remember it next time Anko.", I replied chastised.

"No need to sound so disappointed midget. You did pretty good. And remember, if this were enemy territory, there wouldn't be a next time.", she advised. Chuckling she continued," You're perhaps the most level-headed minon in this weird team. I don't see how the Hokage was confident enough to sign me up with you midgets."

I looked at her, pleasantly surprised at the praise.

"Honestly speaking, I considered failing you guys cause the first time I observed you in the Academy, I felt like I was way out of my depth with you guys. But, the next day, in survival training, you guys as a team really impressed me. And that was exactly when I knew that I wanted to teach and tort- eh nurture. Yeah nurture your talents.", she stumbled

I then looked at her with a bit of fear. She chuckled.

"You can disrupt those two's fights in an instant and sometimes those two look at you like some sort of team leader. "

"That's too much of a praise Anko", I replied, thanking for the dark night, as my cheeks were feeling a tad warm.

She jumped down and I followed.

"Alright minions! Enough rest. Move on!", Anko ordered. "It's already been that much time?!" Akira groaned. But, he got up along with Kazumi and cleared the area of their presence. We continued along the path and passed through the part where the fight occurred. Not pausing to observe, we continued on. An hour later, we reached the banks of the river that connected The Land of Waves and the fire country.

"Our ride should be here by now. Seeing that no one is actually here, I'm now wondering if any of you have the Mokuton release.", she looked at us. We sweat-dropped.

"Ehhh…."

"Tch, no Mokuton release prodigies in my team."

It was at that opportune or inopportune moment, that Anko's contact made the unfortunate decision to make himself known. She glared at him murderously, twirling a kunai. He gulped. Not wanting to waste more time than required, I intervened.

"Can we please skip murdering the boat-man and go ahead?", I asked, looking at Anko pointedly.

"Tch, alright." she accepted.

We hopped on to the boat and started towards Wave. In the boat, I took the opportunity to rest and closed my eyes. I didn't sleep though, it's not that I didn't want to. I couldn't. Not when Naruto and Sasuke were in trouble. Anko was awake too. I admired that ability of hers to stay sharp, whatever the situation was. The other two though went promptly to sleep. It took another two hours for us to reach the banks of The Land of the Waves. Shame it was night. I wanted to see the bridge in all of it's glory. When we reached, Anko woke them up, while I jumped on-shore. Glaring once more at the boat-man, she paid him his due and we were on our way.

For most of the path there were trees on both sides and considering Akira's getting tired easily, took a couple of pit-stops. It was after an hour after our last rest that we encountered a clearing that was saturated with latent, used chakra. It was over-whelming and felt _massive._ It was by all rights supposed to be a continuation of a path. But, the sheer amount of water and the scorched trees had turned it into a clearing.

I started hyperventilating here. Noticing this my team gave me some space to recover. Bringing my breathing under control, I looked at Anko and nodded, giving the acknowledgement to continue. By the time that we actually reached the outskirts of the fishing community that housed Tazuna's house, it was still pretty early in the morning and nearing dawn. Not wanting to disturb them so early in the morning, we elected to stay in a local hotel and rest till breakfast time and report to Kakashi.

Reaching the hotel, we booked one huge room with two beds. Reaching the room, Anko took one bed and glared at us. I shrugged and pulled Akira with me onto the other.

"So, you guys are going to make me sleep on the floor?!", Kazumi asked incredulously, in one of her rare displays of emotion.

"That's Anko's and your problem. Solve it with her.", I retorted pointing my finger at her. She grunted glaring at Anko.

"Not a chance in hell minion.", she growled in retaliation to what I said. Knowing that this could take a while, I lied down, allowing my tired state to lull me into some state of sleep.

 **-LATER THAT MORNING-**

I got up feeling the sun's rays that filtering through the window nudging me awake. But my traitorous body wanted to sleep some more and was forcing my eyes shut. I tried shocking Akira awake and that was when I found something wrong with him. He had far too many limbs. And that was when my eyes shot open. Guessing as to what the ensuing argument between Anko and Kazumi would've led to I tried to take more recognition of my surroundings. As I'd feared, Akira's head was at the foot of the bed to my right mouth open and snoring, with his legs on my abdomen and Kazumi to my left with her hands wrapped around my chest tightly. I was acutely aware of her, ahhh…, nippular area that was pressing on to my back.

At that inopportune moment Anko decided that she'd had enough sleep and got up, immediately spotting my being awake and smirked. Instantly jerking up, pushing my less-than-lucky team-mates off of the bed in the process, took a towel and my supply-bag to the bathroom. After I'd finished and came out, Anko was still smirking at me, while my team-mates were still blissfully asleep where I'd deposited them when I pushed them off of the bed.

"If you three had been a bit older, that would've portrayed a less innocent image.", she teased, still sporting that annoying smirk.

Blushing, I replied, "You're an evil evil woman." To which, she started laughing and made her way to the bathroom. When I heard the shower running, wanting to get back at her, I opened the tap in the room. Smiling at the yowl that came from the bathroom, which signified my success in getting back at her, I closed the tap back and laughed at the string of curses that erupted from the bathroom. I went about waking Akira and Kazumi up, which proved to be a bit difficult as once I'd awoken Akira, I'd go to Kazumi and by that time Akira would've already fallen back asleep. This went on for a few times and was infuriating to say the least. Getting fed up, I went upto the tea-table, carried the steel plate that the table had took it near the bed and dropped it near them. It created a resounding 'CLANG!' as it hit the floor that resonated throughout the room, shocking the two of them awake.

"Anko'll be out in a few, one of you have to use the bath next." I informed the grumpy sleepy-heads glaring at me. "Oh grow up.", I told them shrugging. Remembering what Anko said earlier and blushing, I clarified, "Ehh. Maybe not now."

"Does that mean that I can go back to sleep?" Akira asked.

"No." I replied looking at him. "And I think that maybe you'll be going next.", I said pointing at him, with a sense of finality.

"Fine.", he grumbled. Looking at Kazumi I continued, "That does not mean that you can go back to sleep either. Get your stuff ready."

Mumbling and giving me looks that promised revenge later, they went about gathering their stuff, albeit very lethargically. When Anko came out, she was glaring at me murderously. I was immensely relieved that I'd awoken my team-mates as there were now witnesses and couldn't go on with whatever she was planning in her head.

When everyone was ready we wasted no time in checking-out of the hotel and searching for Tazuna's house. To call the town not well off, would have been an understatement. It was appalling to see the amount of poverty that the town was under. Even though shops were open, there wasn't anything inside to buy. People walking about the streets aimlessly, looking for employment. Thankfully, we hadn't come across any beggars. Yet. We split up to gather information about the location of Tazuna's home. Asking the local restaurant about Tazuna earned me scared looks from the person I was asking and people inside the restaurant actually started shunning me. I was about to go to the fourth establishment since we'd split up to get information, when someone came up behind me. I tensed and looked back taking a kunai to hand.

"Hey, hey put that away!", he whispered hurriedly. "Don't want them finding out! I'll tell you where his house is. I work under him to build and complete that magnificent bridge." Not letting my guard down, I still held my stance glaring at him.

Rolling his eyes said, "Fine be that way, turn right two streets from here. Reach the end of that road. You'll get to his house. I'll be going my way."

Not wanting to trust the information fully, I wanted to confirm it. So, I went to the place stealthily and checked. Climbing the tree that was growing in front of the house, I stood there checking the place. In a few minutes, I saw a woman coming out and hanging clothes. The way she held herself and conducted herself was in stark contrast to how the town that I saw. She was humming as she hung the clothes and had a soft smile on her face.

I wanted to believe that this was in fact Tazuna's house. Confirmation came a few minutes later, when I heard a huge shout of agony, which could be coming from none other than Naruto. Abandoning all thought, I rushed in through the closest window. Coming to the first floor landing, I found him, clutching his butt and a sniggering Sasuke next to him.

"PINS ON MY CHAIR! SASUKE YOU'RE DEAAAA-", he stopped abruptly looking at me and squeezing his eyes. "NOW YOU PUT ME UNDER A GENJU-hmph".

I tackled the both of them, hugging them fiercely, I wasn't ashamed to find that I had actual tears coming out from my eyes as I hugged them. "How are you guys? Are you alright?", I asked my voice almost choking.

They were stunned, obviously not expecting the emotional outburst, especially from me.

"Yeah Daisuke. You needn't worry", Naruto said grinning. "We're the best tag team ever. We kicked major ass.", he boasted, with Sasuke still looking at me surprised. By that time, the woman I saw drying the clothes came in, with a worried look on her face.

"Idiot. It's my job to worry.", I scolded him. "My team's come for back-up. I'm supposed to rendezvous with them in a few. Either one of you wanna come along?" I asked.

"The both of us will come Daisuke.", Sasuke replied. I turned to Sakura. "What about you Sakura-san?", I asked politely. Blushing, she just nodded. It was then that my stomach reminded me that I hadn't had breakfast yet, by giving an almighty growl. I looked at the fruit bowl on the table wistfully.

"Help yourself.", the woman I now knew was Tsunami, told me kindly smiling. I picked an apple and thanked her.

"May I borrow these three for sometime?", I asked.

"Sure. I'll prepare lunch for four more then.", she declared.

"Oh no ma'am." I refused. "My team can eat in the restaurant that we saw in the town square. You needn't bother."

"My name is Tsunami and don't worry, it's no bother. You all are here to protect my dad from Gato. It's the least that I can do.", she said smiling. "Now go ahead and enjoy."

We rendezvoused with my team in the town square and walked through the town, getting familiar with the routes, in case of an emergency. While walking through town, I noticed a child no older than five giving the apple I had in my hand the same look I imagined that I was giving it in Tazuna's house. I smiled at her and held out the fruit in my hand. She came towards me bashful and accepted. Biting in, she smiled back at me and ran off. I then got sad at how state of affairs were in the beautiful town. If this had gone on a few more years, this would've become a ghost town with a tyrant at it's helm. I wanted to help stop that.

By the time we reached back for lunch, Kakashi was walking around the house with a crutch in hand. We sat down the table with Anko and Kakashi sitting on one side, Sasuke and I to their immediate right, Naruto and Akira to our right and finally Kazumi and Sakura in the last side.

"Now that we've all gathered let's get this show on the road. As you probably have been informed, we engaged two missing-nin from the Mist. Specifically, two highly trained shinobi from the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist. Although Zabuza was, for lack of a better word, speared by senbon from a hunter-nin, I have reason to believe that he's still alive. If my intuition rings true, then we won't have two but three shinobi who are highly skilled to counter. Hence, my reason for calling back-up.", Kakashi informed us.

"Yeah, yeah.", Anko drawled. "We know. Now where's the food?", she asked.

"Anko!", I hissed.

"What?", she asked, shrugging. "I'm hungry."

At that moment, Tsunami came in smiling and said ,"Ah sorry to keep you waiting. Lunch is served."

"There it is!", Anko said grabbing for the rice bowl.

"Thanks Tsunami-san. Unfortunately, this brute here is unable to thank you properly." I said glaring at Anko, who'd already filled her plate.

When I had the opportunity to get rice and sit down to eat, (read I had to grab the rice bowl from Anko) I found that I couldn't since Anko right next to me was gorging herself making noises that I hadn't imagined could come from the human mouth. I got irritated and tried to ignore the food slaughterfest occurring next to me. But, the noise got steadily more and more irritating. Before I could control what I was doing, my hand, on it's own volition rose up and bopped her pretty hard in the back of her head with my mouth saying, "Eat slowly. You'll choke, idiot."

It became dead silent at the table and I started enjoying my food. And then, I kinda realised that someone had done something not good for their health. I looked around the table quizzically, my gaze landing on Anko the last. Then, my stupid mind realized _who_ exactly had done something not good for their health. Cause, when I hit her, she was holding the bowl with which she was eating pretty close to her face. And was now smothered in rice and curry. It was abundantly apparent that she did not appreciate the advice I gave her and her curry face. With the curry eyebrows twitching asked, "Who's the idiot?"

I got up slowly from my place saying, "I think I've had my lunch and dinner and breakfast too. Make that food for the next four days, since I'll be making myself scarce." And launched from the table to the nearest exit I could find. But, fate had other ideas or it was my very stupid dressing sense I think, as she grabbed my collar ( _Has it always been that large?!)_ and pulled me face to face. "Time for some training I think" she growled and shunshinned the both of us out of the house.

 **-LATER THAT EVENING-**

I went through the front door limping and sat on a cushion with a huff. Naruto and Sasuke, who were sitting near the dining table, gave me sympathetic looks, while Anko strutted in nursing bruises of her own.

"Heh, not bad minion. You can give a Jonin a run for their money." she complimented me, smirking. At that moment, Kakashi walked into the main room sans crutch and flexing his fingers. Looking at me he asked Anko, "I'm all for a good training session, but haven't you gone a bit too far Anko?"

"Naaah. It was a gentle pat-down. Nothing too heavy.", Anko responded.

Gentle pat-down my heavily bruised left butt.", I grumbled.

"Say anything midget? Did you say you want more training?," Anko asked me her voice turning sweet. I paled. Looking at the exchange, Sasuke started sniggering.

The small boy sitting at the corner with his Tazuna piped up, "Should you be laughing? I did say that you guys are going to die. Maybe, I think you should, because you should be happy once at least before you die."

The whole room's mood soured instantly. I glared at him and asked, activating the Sharingan just to intimidate the asshole, "Who are you to say anything about when my brother is going to die?"

I had to give it to him. He didn't seem intimidated in the slightest. He glared at me right back and responded, "The person who knows for sure that Gato is really strong and can't be beat by eight, sorry two people and six kids."

He then got up and left the room. Trying to diffuse the tension, Kakashi with his signature eye-crinkle announced, "Since we've got about four days left before which I assume Zabuza won't be in any position to fight, I thought that I'd train you people in chakra control. But, Naruto and Sasuke here informed me to my surprise that their loving older brother already taught them the basics and could perform the tree-climbing exercise and Sakura also easily caught the gist of it. I have to thank you for lessening my duties by a lot."

Breathing deeply, he continued, "Since, chakra training is going to be obsolete, I'm going to teach you all a useful C-rank ninjutsu, which could help greatly with the battle ahead."

This got Naruto psyched and he started bouncing around the room. Which brought the tension down admirably. Looking at Kakashi, I smiled as a way of thanks. He eye-crinkled back at me. Tomorrow was going to be tough, if I knew anything about Kakashi and his training methods. But to that I thought, " _Bring it on!"_

 **A/N:** So, first chapter of Wave done. Next chapter will be the training days and the epic intros of Zabuza, Haku and Ameyuri in the final fight. R&R peeps. Toodles :)


	10. Chapter 10

**Previously:** Team twelve reaches Wave and meets up with team seven and Tazuna's family. Inari is disgusted by the antics of the teams from Konoha and belittles them. To diffuse the tension, Kakashi offers to train everyone, which ups the mood of everyone present.

 **Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto, Kishi does. But, Daisuke, Kazumi and Akira are mine though.

"I still can't believe that you want me training along with them.", Anko huffed at Kakashi, pointing at us. He assigned Kazumi, Sakura and Akira to guard Tazuna at the bridge and the rest of us for training.

"Mah, mah Anko. I still outrank you here. You're supposed to listen to a mission's commanding officer or risk insubordination. And I'd like to think that I have an _interesting_ fire jutsu to teach you I think" Kakashi eye-crinkled. Anko glared at him.

"Now you three." he said, pointing to Naruto, Sasuke and I. "Since your chakra networks are a bit heavily built, I will teach you a jutsu that is a bit chakra consuming. If your chakra control is what you say it is, then you should have mastered it within tomorrow. It's name is **_Ninja arts: Chakra projectile_**. As you can derive from the name, it's basically a chakra shape manipulating technique. The seals are tiger, hare, ram and bird." He performed the handseals slowly for us and launched the jutsu. There was a slight chakra build-up on his palm in the form of a circle and then shot out like the shape of a needle, whizzing at a huge speed. It was fast enough to leave an impression, a deep one, on the tree he was aiming at. Turning and looking at our gawking faces he chuckled.

"The jutsu travels fast true, but the chakra build-up before the shot can be certainly taxing. On a given good day, I can produce something close to a hundred and ninety. I am curious to see how much you three can perform." he told us. "As for you Anko, I have something special in mind. B-Rank. Has the potential to become an A-Rank if controlled used by a skilled user."

"And why hasn't anyone tried to ?", she asked.

"Well, I'll show you. Ox, Snake, Dog, Tiger **_Fire style: Fiery Snake Retaliation_** **.** " Kakashi yelled. He took a deep breath and let out a thin, intensely hot blue flame of fire which when landing on the ground turned to a snake, that scorched the ground it slid on. Instead of spitting out venom, it spat small balls of fire that exploded once it reached it's target. "As you can see, it needs a huge amount of control over fire-natured chakra, even if it's intimidating." he told her. Anko looking at it with a critical eye asked, "Can a water style user extinguish it?"

"Depends upon the strength of the jutsu used. Water bullets and the water whip stand no chance. Exploding water shockwave and the like will severely weaken it. But it stands no chance against a water dragon, although it can weaken one considerably.", Kakashi informed.

"I'm going to go practice this somewhere else. See ya later midgets. Cyclops.", Anko waved and set off.

We started to work on the Chakra projectile and it was a friggin # ^$! to even get the chakra build-up stage, let alone get to the projectile. I could see that we were just wasting chakra a lot. My chakra was happy to coat my palm but not conform to the circle that I saw that Kakashi developed. Surprisingly, it was Naruto, who made the first breakthrough. Although it kept fizzling off when he tried to shoot it out. Seeing his success, Sasuke scowled and started working on his training with more fervor. But even after three hours of my frustrating chakra not wanting to take shape, I was running at the last dregs of my reserves and very irritated, Sasuke was heaving, having achieved the first stage and Naruto not even coming _close_ to being tired due to chakra exhaustion but still visibly heaving. Incidentally, he was able to produce one successful projectile, but kept failing lots of times too. Not wanting to be outdone by them, I tried to get the first stage running again. And again, predictably, my chakra didn't want to leave my palm _at all._ This was then an idea sparked, which made me walk to the nearest tree and bump my head against it's trunk.

Hard.

Repeatedly.

Going up to Kakashi rubbing my head, I asked him to perform the jutsu again. He looked at me and did that annoying eye-crinkle again. I think he got the idea of what I was going to do.

"Get ready then.", he told me. Looking at him intently, I activated the sharingan. He performed the jutsu again. I figured out what we were doing wrong. The chakra build up wasn't from the palm itself but from the roots of the fingers, which was then expelled by the fingers.

"Got it sensei." I smiled at him. Then I performed the jutsu. It came out perfectly. While smiling at it, my world went black.

 **-O.O -**

When I came to, it was already dark outside. Yawning, I got up. Hearing a lot of loud noises from downstairs, I wondered what was going on. When I went and opened my door, Inari was then running up the stairs, visibly crying. He opened his room's door, went in and slammed it shut. When I went down the room's mood was decidedly not good. Akira was glaring at Sakura who was looking sorry. Naruto had a huge frown. Tsunami was glaring at her father.

"What happened here?", I asked them confused. Tsunami smiled at me and said," Oh nothing you need to worry about Daisuke-kun." Frowning at Tazuna she continued, "Just my father being an idiot is all."

She got up from her place and went towards the stairs, to console Inari I think. Looking at Tazuna's guilty face, I didn't want to impose by asking awkward questions so, went and sat down near Sasuke. At that moment Kakashi asked him, "Who exactly was that man? Why did Inari get so upset when you mentioned him?"

"As you all know, The Land of the Waves was a prosperous country. We lived in harmony with all of the nations surrounding us. It was a time of peace. But, all of that changed when the fire nation attacked.", Tazuna began seriously. "Wait that's not how it goes." he continued smacking his forehead.

" _Eh?_ ", I thought to myself, sweat-dropping. The others were looking at him owlishly. Anko was about to say something when-

"Sorry about that. Had a momentary brain-mouth dysfunction.", he apologized sheepish look on his face. "A few years back he had a dog named Pochi, to which he was extremely attached. Some older boys of the neighborhood were jealous of him. They wanted Pochi all to themselves. So one boy caught Pochi when the dog had roamed out of the house and named it Shooting Star. Pochi was just a pup back then and so followed anyone who treated him properly. Inari was very broken up about it. One day, he worked up the courage to stand up to them and get back Pochi. Those boys were a bit cruel to him and threw Pochi into the sea from the docks. Inari wanted to go after the pup, but was too scared to follow, as he didn't know how to swim. The boys then pushed _him_ into the sea. But, before he could reach the pup, it started paddling on it's own towards the shore. Inari was about to drown, when he was saved from drowning by a man named Kaiza."

That name seemed to click something in my head. _"Wait. Kaiza was someone akin to a dad to Inari, if I remember correctly. Didn't Gato kill him? Damn. That can screw any kid over."_ I thought to myself. Tazuna continued Kaiza's story. I knew most of it, so tuned it out. When he finished, everyone was solemn. Even Anko who usually seemed chipper in any situation looked a bit disturbed. Naruto got up with a flourish. And fell with a thump. At the action, everyone looked at him.

"What're you doing down there Naruto?", Sasuke asked. "If you're going to be stupid, do it in your own time. Read the mood here."

"I'll prove it to him.", he began standing up knees quivering. "I'll prove that heroes do exist in this world of ours. I'm going to go train. I'd like it if no one followed." So declaring, he went out of the house. Anko smirked and said," Ara, ara I know that the previous generation always is surpassed by the next, but this is a bit too much. He's a snot nosed kid. I am not going to let him make me look small. I'm going to train too." and left.

At that moment, my stomach chose to make itself known. By growling quite loudly. I was embarrassed sure, but my traitorous face didn't have to heat up so badly. Sasuke smiled, while Akira outright laughed. Tazuna pointed at the pans at the dinner table, looking at me weirdly. I quietly went up to the table and had my dinner.

After finishing dinner, I was helping Akira with the dishes, seeing as Tsunami-san was looking after Inari. I was still really tired from training that morning and let out mouth tearing yawn. "If you're tired you can go sleep ya know.", Akira admonished. "Tomorrow's your final day and you have to get lots of rest."

"I'll sleep when I wanna sleep", I sulked looking at him and yawned again.

Behind us, Kakashi summoned one of his hounds with a 'poof'. "Well, Akino here will take care of house security for tonight and will warn me if anything seems off. So, none of you will have to worry about that."

"If you can do that, why not summon one for Naruto?", I asked. He looked at me. I got embarrassed again. "I mean, just in case." I muttered.

"He's not an idiot you know", he eye crinkled at me. "He knows his limits. When all is said and done, it's you whom we had to worry about."

" _Damn. Caught me there.",_ I thought to myself angrily. " _But then, I probably shouldn't have used such a chakra intensive jutsu when I knew that I had very little_."

"As much as I am enjoying this conversation as the third person, I'm feeling a bit sleepy. Not all of us got to sleep until half past nine after all.", Sasuke interjected. Akira and Kazumi scowled at him. He got up and went to the guest rooms that we were using . "What an attitude!", Akira muttered.

"It's that attitude of his that keeps him sane Akira. Don't worry about it.", I told him, smiling. "After our parents died, it was only to Naruto and me that he opened up to. Deep down he cares for everyone, in his own way."

"If you say so.", he muttered. By the time we were finished, I was again getting sleepy and yawning every few minutes. My team-mates were looking at me pointedly. "Fine, fine! I'm going.! But only if you guys come with." I stubbornly retorted.

I looked at Kakashi. "That includes you too. It can't be easy training three very active boys." He looked up from his book and blinked at me in a 'What did I do?!' way. I glared back at him. This went on for a few moments. I finally cut eye-contact because I had to blink. He had a smug look on his face. I gave up and stomped to bed.

 **-O.O-**

By the time I got up the next morning, Tsunami-san was already up and working about in the house. Tazuna's snoring was wall penetrating as usual, Sasuke's face was planted firmly on the table-top and Naruto was nowhere around.

"Naruto didn't come back?", I asked her worriedly.

"No, Daisuke-kun. I'm afraid he hasn't.", she replied.

"He's probably lying somewhere dead right now.", mumbled the Sasuke head behind me.

"Sasuke!", I admonished. He shrugged and got up walking towards the door. Sakura just sat there looking highly uncomfortable. "Well, I'm going out to do some training too. I can't wait for that lazy bum we have for a sensei to train us."

"Said sensei is in crutches, Sasuke!", I scolded. "Have some compassion."

He snorted and walked out of the house. Wanting to follow him I grabbed whatever was there on the table and plopping it in my mouth, I went out.

"Yo, wait up idiot!"

"You don't have to shout you know?"

"Well, if my voice has to reach your deaf ears I do have to shout."

"And whose fault is it anyway for my ears going deaf? SASKEE CHAKRA TRAINING! SASKEE TAIJUTSU TRAINING!"

Bickering like this we went to the place where we were training the previous day. Entering the forest, we passed a beautiful looking person. Although, I knew exactly _who_ it was I didn't comment. Upon reaching the training ground, we found Naruto looking somewhere behind us incredulously. I snapped him out of it and we continued training. Eventually (read five hours later) Kakashi decided to show up, the three other genin in tow. By then, I'd explained the working mechanics of the technique to Sasuke and Naruto and were able to successfully launch the chakra projectiles without any issues.

Apparently, Sakura and Akira got into an argument about something and from the way Kazumi was glaring at Sakura, I deduced that she was siding with Akira. But, looking at them I wondered who was on guard duty. " _Meh. Must be Anko."_ I shrugged.

"YOU'RE LATE!", Naruto shouted, at volumes I believed impossible that the human voice box could produce. Before Kakashi could begin his "lost on the road of life" rant he continued, asking "Hey, hey! Who's on guard duty?!"

"They're at home with Anko!", Kakashi half-shouted squeeking his ears. "You should lower the volume next time!", he continued. Apparently, Tazuna got depressed when another worker quit building the bridge and gave everyone the day off "for all the good it would do". Tsunami was in the process of making lunch when we returned. Looking at us she smiled.

"You must be famished. Wait for perhaps half hour, lunch will be ready.", she welcomed us warmly. I looked around. Tazuna was nowhere to be found. Moving through to the living room, we found him lying down, looking at the ceiling listlessly. Naruto was looking at him, when his face lit up and he did a hand punch.

Going up to him he exclaimed ,"Ne ne! Tazuna-san. I didn't take a look at the bridge properly when we came! Could we go take a look at the place after lunch?!"

Discovering what he was up to, I added ,"Yes, Tazuna-san. I would very much like to see it too."

Naruto smiled brightly at me. Tazuna looked at us grumpily. Then Naruto brought out the big guns. His dreaded puppy eyes. Tazuna kept glaring. Then sighing, relented. "Fine! I'll take you there! Just stop it with the eyes!"

Lunch was a normal affair. Taking my lesson from the disastrous lunch few days ago, I chose to sit next to Sasuke on my right and Kazumi on my left. Naruto and Anko though were on a dimension of their own. Not looking at them lest I lose my appetite, I engaged Kakashi in light conversation. Only it wasn't light as half-shouting, since his ears hadn't recovered from earlier. After lunch, as promised, Sasuke (Why me?!), Naruto and I followed Tazuna to the bridge.

On reaching the place, without any warning whatsoever, we heard the shout **_Taaju Kage Bunshun no Jutsu_**. The Bridge was filled by a sea of orange. Tazuna looked at Naruto's grinning face and I could swear that the man was going to hug the boy to an inch of his life. And the next minute he did.

Naruto explained to him to give orders to the clones and they would do as he asked. For the next few hours Sasuke and I were on guard duty while Naruto rested next to us, as the technique took a lot out of him. He was still out like a light when in the evening Tazuna wrapped up the day's work and all of his clones puffed out. When we reached his home, he was like an elated child explaining to Tsunami that Naruto helped him that day by providing him with a huge workforce and it didn't matter anymore what anyone thought. "Even without that boy's help I'm going to find some way to complete that bridge." I heard him declare. While all this was happening Inari was looking at us and scowling. I glared back. After awhile he looked down.

" _Hmph!"_ , I thought, smug.

Naruto woke up later that night, whilst we were having dinner. He came down, scratching his hair. Seeing this, Kazumi scowled.

"Go wash your hands and face, else I'll show you why exactly my clan is praised for their swordsmanship.", she growled. Not acknowledging the fact that he'd just received a threat, he shrugged and went outside. She scowled even further and Sasuke snorted. When he came and sat down, Kazumi was still a bit miffed with Naruto. Chatter around the table was pretty amicable and light-hearted. Laughs were going all around. Inari, in a fit of seven year old rage, pushed his bowl off of the table. The room immediately became quiet.

"How can you all be so _laid-back!"_ , he screamed. "On one hand we have Gato, with his super-powered thugs who no one can raise a hand to." At this point he was glaring at me and Naruto. I glared right back and in a very rare occurrence, Naruto was glaring back at him. Angrily. "And here we have you! So easy-going and happy, confident that- _PLUNK!_ "

He fell off his chair, looking stunned and a bit fearful. For Naruto had embedded a shuriken on the table where Inari's bowl previously was. Tsunami looked horrified and Kakashi had gotten up.

"Listen here you little Brat!", he snarled. "It's easy for you to sit here snivelling while your grandpa and mum provide you with this roof over your head and good food to eat. Look at the town! There are people far worse off than you. If you want something done, go do it yourself!"

He got off the table and walked toward the door. "I'm going out. I need to be alone.", he opened the door and slammed it shut. After a few seconds we could hear the main door open and slam shut. Inari meanwhile, had gotten up and run upstairs. Anko whistled.

" _Soooo_ , is anyone going to have that rice?", she asked.

 **-O.O-**

I was up awake that night sitting near the window, hugging my knees and looking at the waning moon., Kakashi was probably asleep, his form was too still for me to believe he was actually asleep. Sasuke was definitely asleep. I was nodding off when I heard a sound outside. I stiffened and Kakashi's body did too, but kept the farce of him being asleep.

Seconds later, Naruto came in through the window, bruises and stains adorning his self. I quickly walked toward him.

"Okay?", I enquired whispering. He nodded tiredly. "Go sleep, I'll be asleep in a while." He nodded again, went to his futon and lied down with a huff. In moments, he too was out like a light. Meanwhile, Kakashi had gone back to being absolutely still. I went back to my spot near the window and lied down. The soothing voice of crickets chirping outside was good enough to put me to sleep.

 **-O.O-**

The next three days went by like a routine. Anko, Sasuke, Naruto and I would be on guard duty with Tazuna, with Naruto providing the clones and promptly fainting; while Kakashi, Sakura, Kazumi and Akira would go off to train. Inari behaved after that small altercation the other night, but still avoided Naruto like the plague. Naruto would go off after dinner, Sasuke following him and usually Sasuke would return first and Naruto way later. On the fourth day, the bridge was very close to completion. Naruto was oblivious to the wake-up calls that Sakura was dishing out.

By then, the others had completed their training and seeing nothing else to do, everyone opted for following Tazuna to the bridge. I volunteered to stay back and bring Naruto when he got up. About half-hour after everyone left a huge yawn was to be heard coming from upstairs. I chuckled. A few minutes later, he came down scratching his head, still sleepy.

I got up from my sitting place, physically held him, went upstairs, grabbed a change of clothes along with a towel and turned him towards the bathroom. "You're not doing anything until you finish your morning business."

"Kay mom", he grumbled. After he was done and I ensured that his clothes were in fact the ones I took out for him, we went down. He ate while I waited, then we headed out. While we were tree hopping towards the bridge, I noticed slash marks on the surrounding area that coated the trees and most likely from a katana.

" _Holy Crap! How could I have forgotten about those Ronin?"_ , I thought a bit panicked. My conscience would not allow me to wait for Naruto to finally notice them and take action. I brought them to his notice and after a quick decision, the both of us were sprinting back to the Tazuna's house. On reaching, finding that nothing had happened yet, we sighed in relief and went in.

"Anything wrong Daisuke-kun?", she asked.

"Not really.", I replied. "Just a precaution is all."

Not two seconds after I'd uttered these words, a brick came flying through the main door, with a voice shouting "Oi! Anyone home?!" and cackling later.

Whatever they'd expected, they didn't expect two ninja in training. Wanting to keep the element of surprise, I hushed Tsunami and Inari who by the time had entered the main room directed them upstairs. I could hear them barging in .Inari looked deathly scared. I walked close to him and whispered grinning, "Don't worry. Naruto and I will keep the both of you safe."

Going to Naruto, I whispered my plan to him. He grinned at me and jumped out the window. Removing my headband and pocketing it, I went down. The two of them stopped what they were doing and looked at me surprised.

"Who are you?!", one of them asked.

"I'm the owner's daughter's cousin. And who are you?!", I retaliated. I was able to put up a fake face that showed me confident but nervous at the same time. "A couple of samurai wannabes probably. What do they call you, umm, Ronin?" I snorted.

At this, the two of them scowled. One threatening step was all they took towards me, before they fell down like logs. Naruto came behind grinning madly, catapult and a few rocks in hand.

"Best prank ever!", he exclaimed gleefully.

I was tying them securely with rope that Tsunami provided, while at that time, Naruto was talking to Inari. I knew exactly what he was saying and let him do it. That kid was getting on my nerves and I wasn't going near him without being able to be mean to him. Inari nodded once and ran inside. Naruto walked over to me, hands tied behind his head.

"Let's go now?", he asked.

I nodded, then we set off towards the direction of the bridge. On reaching, we found the mother of tense situations waiting for us. Sasuke and Kazumi were already in the heat of battle, Akira and Sakura were guarding Tazuna, Anko was glaring at Ameyuri and Kakashi was conversing with Zabuza.

I wanted to do the bait thing again like I did with the ronin. Planning with Naruto again took another minute.

 **-With Kakashi-**

" _Meh, I have enough confidence in Sasuke. I guess I'll just read this until I feel that I have to interfere. Where are those two anyway?_ ", I thought to myself. I could tell the tell-tale signs of a shunshin coming. Simultaneously, Zabuza's and my eyes widened to see who it was.

There standing next to Anko, was Sasuke's brother.

"Ummm… Is it too late to join this little thing you guys have got going on here?", he asks.

I smile and do the eye-crinkle, which I know annoys him.

"No, no Daisuke. In fact, I was just wondering where you and Naruto were. Where is he anyway?"

Looking aghast, he pointed at me.

"You traitor!", he exclaimed. "We have an awesome plan in the works and you're asking m-"

"I'M HERE!", Naruto's voice shouts from somewhere, only I can't see him. Then I do. And cue facepalms.

 **-With Daisuke-**

"You traitor!", I exclaimed. "We have an awesome plan in the works and you're asking m-"

"I'M HERE!", Naruto's voice shouts from somewhere, only I can't see him. Then I do. And cue facepalms.

For Naruto was behind _Zabuza,_ of all people scroll and brush in hand.

"Yo Demon. Autograph?", he asks politely. When all of this was happening, Zabuza, whom I should mention is given the moniker of "Demon of the Hidden Mist", because his chakra actually manifests as a demon behind him while sneering at his prey evilly, _yelped_ (later after the battle was over, he would attest that he gave a manly growl) and jumped back (a complex ninja maneuver that we genin wouldn't understand) and looked at him skeptically.

Grumbling about his reputation preceding him and how he was the _expert_ in silent killing and that that was the _second_ time that the blond idiot was able to get the better out of him, grabbed the handed items and signed on them.

"Thanks!", he sang out and jumped towards Sasuke.

"Idiot!", I shouted. "You were supposed to join Sasuke as soon as everyone was looking at me and knock that guy out!"

"Hehehe", he grinned sheepishly. "But I'm sure I can get pretty money over if I sell this Zabuza original."

Sasuke did me a favor and bopped him in the head.

"Hey!", he exclaimed.

"Can we please get back to our battle?", Haku asked. "I kinda want to prove my awesomeness to Zabuza here."

"My pl-" Naruto now bopped _him_ on the head. " _Our_ pleasure.", he added wistfully. And commenced fighting. I went to Anko, she smirked at me.

"I feel so left out.", Kakashi sniffed behind me.

"Hey. The swordsmen. Women-" I hastily corrected myself glancing at Ameyuri, she smirked. "- are on a league of their own. You are on the same league. My poor sensei on the other hand isn't."

This earned me a bop on the head. "Hey, what was that for?!"

"For telling him that I wasn't in the same league as him!", she fumed pointing at Kakashi first and Zabuza second.

"Isn't It true though?!", I retaliated.

At this she huffed, crossed her hands and sulked like a petulant child.

"As I was saying, my poor sensei isn't. And since I have experience sparring with her, I won't get in the way."

"Hmph!", came a voice behind me.

Their fight started becoming more and more intense with Sasuke's increasing speed and Haku starting to use his one-handed seals, which the both were able to easily dodge and counter. I could literally feel the air around us become colder and colder. And then, she used his clan's signature jutsu. The Demonic Ice mirrors. Anko let out a long whistle.

"That brat has potential.", she whispered.

Here was when Sasuke and Naruto started having trouble.

 **-With Sasuke, Naruto and Haku-**

Within the dome things escalated to a whole new level. Everywhere the both of them turned, there was a copy of Haku. " _Clones?_ ", deduced Sasuke. " _No can't be. This seems something to do with light and reflection. So I'll do this._ "

" **Katon: Gokakyuu no Jutsu"**. The fireball blazed strong and true. But on hitting the ice mirror, did no damage at all.

Then, something happened that shot his theory out of the window. _From every possible direction_ , senbon with a sunovabitch sting came and hit the both of them, not injuring fatally but painful enough to distract coherent thought.

" _So clones it is."_ Sasuke continued. " _And with clones we'll counter"_

"Naruto!", Sasuke called. "I need clones. Lots of 'em"

"Hai!", he replied. " ** _Tajuu Kage Bunshin no Jutsu"_** _._ Twenty- Twenty five clones came and began pouncing on the Haku reflections. But, within seconds were demolished by the senbon that came. But, this allowed for precious time for thinking. Sasuke ordered Naruto to keep with it and make as many clones as needles came. With the needles no longer being a distraction, Sasuke was able to take a good look at his surroundings. And the first thing that struck his thought process was the fact that _there were no needles on the ground._ He then did one of the stupidest things he'd ever done in his life.

He took an attack hands-on, which would have otherwise attacked a clone. The pain was very profound and hurt like a _bitch._ Wrenching the needle out of his arm, took one look at the attacking needle and deduced that it was metal and not ice.

 _"So, he's somehow collecting them back. Efficient.",_ Sasuke allowed grudgingly, clutching his arm. " _But how? Is he collecting using clones or is he actually moving that fast?"_

He then took a look at one of the mirrors. With the clones present it was very distracting, but he could detect a flicker from them, so fast that it would've been missed to a person not actually looking for it. His eyes widened.

" _It's him! He's moving at those speeds and collecting them before they hit the ground!"_

Haku stopped abruptly and looked at them.

"So figured out the jutsu's secret have you?", he asked. "But, what will you do with it? From what I've learned, becoming a true shinobi is difficult. I don't want to kill you, nor do I want you to beat me here. It is truly the biggest dilemma that I have ever faced up till now. In this bridge, where you fight for your dreams and I fight for mine, I can sacrifice my kindness to become a true shinobi. I can try and kill you!", he snarled and the senbon continued to rain.

From somewhere, outside of the dome Sasuke could hear Sakura encouraging them. Naruto was continuing with his clones. Sasuke quickly started to tell Naruto what was happening, when Naruto gasped.

"S-Sasuke..", he stammered. "Your eyes…"

And then, Sasuke knew, that he'd achieved the Sharingan awakening, but which stage remained to be known. He filed this for later and explained to Naruto what was happening. Naruto nodded. They were now not only able to dodge, but Sasuke was even able to scorch some part of Haku's robe. After a while of this, Haku started becoming even more ruthless with his attack, from which Sasuke and Naruto were able to dodge only little.

The end of _that_ particular battle came to a halt very quickly.

A senbon caught Naruto in the ankle and he stumbled and fell. Reacting only as he would, Sasuke created three shadow clones and rushed towards Naruto covering him from all directions.

When he recovered, Naruto could hear the tell-tale dispelling of shadow clones and looked up in glee. What he saw horrified him. Needles. Lots and lots of them. Sticking out of Sasuke in every possible place, in every possible direction. He was stumbling and struggling to stand and then fell aggravating his injuries in those areas.

"Why?", he asked eyes tearing, still to horrified to comprehend the amount of damage that his brother had taken for _him._ Moving closer and placing Sasuke's head on his lap he continued, "Why would you do this for someone like me?

Sasuke smiled at him and chuckled lightly. "Cause you're my brother. Idiot."

With these words, his head went limp, the ghost of his smile still etched on his face.

"He was able to land blows on me even in this state and when the time came, put your safety above his. Knowing a trap, but still willing to jump in and die for his precious person, he is a shinobi that deserves the highest amount of respect."

Still holding Sasuke, something broke inside of him. With his tears still on his face which was betraying an uncontrollable, fearsome rage and eyes that were no longer human, he cried out with agony pouring into his voice," I won't forgive you! I'll kill you!"

 **-With Daisuke-**

The dome shattered, Kurama's head, blazing out in all of his glory for everyone to see even through all of the mist. Naruto below, having punched Haku out of it.

" _There you are. You highly misunderstood fox. I can't wait to meet you."_

As if those thoughts actually reached him, the head turned at my direction and let out an ear-splitting roar clearing the mist Zabuza created then suddenly vanished. This was the moment In which Kakashi summoned his hounds and had Zabuza in their death grip.

Meanwhile, Anko and I hadn't been standing around either. Ameyuri turned out to be a very fearsome opponent. Sneering and leering with her pointy sharpened teeth to psychologically unseat her opponent. I must admit I was somewhat intimidated, but Anko was actually cackling. Her experience with the thunder blades, Kiba was there for the both of us to see.

Anko's earth style techniques more than once helped deflect her attacks. I was standing back using the chakra projectile technique while Anko actually took the fight to her. One advantage that I found with the technique was that, if I focused on the target, the chakra projectile acted similar to a homing device and followed her.

But, she was too skilled to actually let one of the attacks hurt her. But importantly, it distracted her from Anko's attacks and left her somewhat vulnerable. Slowly but surely, we were gaining the upper hand. Whatever snakes Anko sent at her she electrified to a crisp, so Anko used a variation of the fiery retaliation technique and sent a _flaming snake_ towards Ameyuri, who unable to electrify it, got bound by the still electrifying blades to her body and fainted.

Near to me, I could hear the beginning of the **_Raikiri_** technique. Thinking on my toes, thanking my chakra manipulation techniques, I channeled chakra to my throat and yelled," **STOOOOP!** "

It had the desired effect, everyone was looking at me startled.

I looked towards Kakashi and addressed him," Kakashi, whatever follows please believe in me because what I am about to propose is going to be very scandalous and if anything goes wrong, I will take whatever the Hokage dishes out, even if it is capital punishment."

His eyes widened looking shocked. Anko and my team-mates were looking at me like I'd grown two heads. Sakura ran towards Sasuke. Naruto was looking on dejectedly and Haku looked broken. I was looking at Kakashi. He nodded.

"Hey Zabuza!", I called.

He looked at me pointedly.

"How about a little bet?", I asked.

He kept glaring at me.

"Terms?", he queried growling.

"You and your team-mates stay bound for at least another two hours, during which I bet that Gato will turn up refusing to pay, betraying you. If not, we hand over Tazuna."

Behind me, I could hear gasps. Anko's eyes hardened. Kakashi was looking at me, no emotion in his eyes.

"I accept.", he said with a sense of finality.

"But Zabuz-"

"No Haku. I know Konoha ninja, they're honorable. They won't go back on their word."

After Haku was bound and kept along with Ameyuri and Zabuza, bound now by ninja wire, swords with Kakashi. While we were doing this, he came up to me.

"I hope you know what you're doing.", he told me looking stern. "I'm not sure about capital punishment because of your unique disposition, but your whole ninja career is on the line here."

"If I win, we get three really powerful allies Kakashi.", I replied.

The wait was a tense one, within a few minutes, Sasuke also got up, thanks to Anko and Kazumi's first-aid help. When he'd heard what happened, he came upto me and thwacked me in the head hard. Behind me I could hear Zabuza chuckling.

The wait was a tense one. Naruto wasn't able to relax and was pacing. Anko, though body posture relaxed, was becoming increasingly fidgety as time wore on. Akira and Kazumi didn't know what to say and kept quiet, but kept close to me, for which I was thankful. Sasuke too was with me, very tired and almost nodding off to sleep. Sakura too was with us and said that whatever happened next, Konoha ninja never left anyone behind and always stick together. I felt a wave of affection towards her and thanked her. Kakashi kept silent vigil on top one of the cranes.

Forty minutes after the fighting had stopped, he jumped down, dong that annoying eye-crinkle of his at me.

"Mah, mah Daisuke. You're on to something here. Gato is certainly coming. But, with a whole regiment of bandits. What would he need with such a huge army I wonder?", he asked looking pointedly at Zabuza who had a look of indignation on his face.

Kakashi moved to free them and I intervened. Zabuza was looking at me angrily.

I explained to him," I'm not sure if he's here for backup or betrayal. Either way you're free when he arrives. Just wait a few more moments."

A few minutes later, his army of bandits thumping at the ground came towards us and saw the situation. Then, he started laughing.

"Demon of the Mist?!", he cackled. "More like Failure of the Mist! This is what your second failure? Guess what?! No money you loser. You're all going to be fish-bait for my army here"

His goons guffawed alongside him. Kakashi looked at me. I nodded and toward Zabuza I said," Draw your own conclusions."

And freed them all, while Kakashi threw them their weapons.

Whatever Gato thought would have happened, this wasn't a part of that. He suddenly became very serious, some of his goons becoming menacing, some others getting worried and yet more backing off.

It is said that even one Genin who has access to all of his/her chakra is equal to about fifteen bandits. We had five _Jonin_ level ninja with us. Needless to say, the next beating was awe-inspiring yet quick. Within two minutes, all of his bandits lay on the bridge floor writhing in agony while others had jumped off of the bridge to their deaths, in hopes of escaping the onslaught. By this time, a mob of people from the village had gathered, whatever they had within the village to pass off as weapons.

Kakashi left the honor of hurting Gato to Zabuza. Zabuza walked slowly towards him, his scary demon manifestation behind him. Gato was getting paler by the second as he kept approaching him.

"I'll give you whatever you need.", he begged. "Money, the papers to my company. Everything. Please leave me alone and spare me", he literally cried.

"Oh no, I'm not going to do anything to you. I'm simply going to hand you over to them.", he grinned at him maliciously, pointing to the mob behind him. If it was possible, he turned even more white. He carried Gato by the scruff of his shirt and threw him towards the eagerly awaiting mob. He landed with a huff right in front of them. Two really burly looking men, came forward with a rope in hand.

One of them gave Gato an almighty punch, from which he fainted. The other person tied him up and dragged him to the direction of the town.

In the following week, The Land of the Waves prospered. The town's central bank had all of Gato's ill-gotten money transferred to all of the citizens equally. His shipping company's inventory was sold off and the significant amount that was generated by it was transferred to the banks coffers. Tazuna was named town leader, which he politely tried to decline, which was overturned vehemently by the people.

They formally requested an alliance with The Land of Fire, who would supply four Jonin and eighty Chuunin who could not be bought as a police force. By the time the bridge was finished, another half week had passed. When it was time for farewell, the whole town came to see off the ninja who saved their town.

"I'm going to miss this.", Anko sighed.

"You should.", I retorted. "You've become a bit fatter."

Giving me a look that promised murder, she came towards me. Kakashi said that he liked me and didn't want me to die.

Inari wasn't crying, but looked on the very verge of it. We Genin, who'd became quite fond of him walked towards him and consoled him. After the battle that night, he apologized profusely to the all of us and said that he was going to follow Kaiza's attitude towards life.

Tazuna in honour of our memory named the bridge "The Great Konoha Bridge."

Zabuza and team were offered asylum in Konoha until the civil war that was rocking their country was over. Although reluctant at first, Naruto's infectious, mood got them going and accepted. Sasuke and I offered places within the compound to stay.

On returning to the village, the guards Izumo and Kotetsu were point out staring at the legendary swordsman and swordswoman; once within the village we were stopped by concerned ninja no less than five times before finally getting to the Hokage mansion.

And reporting to the Hokage, who looked at the three new additions to the teams that went out, whom he was already anticipating, took a bottle of alcohol, barked at his secretary to bring nine chairs, cancelled all of his appointments for the day and _then_ asked us to report.

Hoo boy, report we did. Kakashi from the beginning of the mission until where team twelve joined. From then on, Anko took over, Kakashi also joining in at times. During the battle of the bridge the Hokage took special interest on knowing that Haku could perform single-handed seals, the fact that the nine-tails made an appearance and balked at the ridiculous bet that I'd made.

"What if it had gone wrong Daisuke-kun?!", he asked me sternly.

I had my answer ready. After all, I had one and a half weeks to come up with one.

"People like him are a greedy bunch. They bully the weak and always want to have the last word, I know this because I have examples right here in Konoha of how Naruto was treated."

His gaze immediately hardened.

"Although not to the point of Gato. Remember that awful orange jumpsuit he used to wear?", I rallied on glancing at Naruto who seemed a bit uncomfortable.

"The shop-keeper would keep exorbitant prices on practical clothes and would place a cheaper price but still very high on that piece of absolute junk!"

To say that everyone in the room was horrified was an understatement.

"Why am I hearing about this only now?!", he asked sternly looking at Naruto.

"Because he's a good guy and doesn't want the person to get reprimanded.", I replied. "But not me. I protect my own. Can we please move on?"

"Yes, yes go ahead you all.", he replied pointing to the Jonin in the room. And the report continued, well over to the evening, with a solution now needed for the three former Mist ninja.

It was agreed that they would be on the ninja roster in two months, before which they would be on probation-cum- rehab, after what would probably have been months or even years of being on the run. Returning home that night, with three more people lifted my mood immensely. Ameyuri was still having her doubts on the issue, I could see, but she kept quiet about it.

I told them that each of the houses within the compound had been refurbished weeks after the incident, so they needn't worry about blood splatter or anything and that they could have their pick. Dinner that night was a bit of an awkward affair. Zabuza tended to keep quiet. Haku was a mystery, but still polite. Ameyuri flat out refused to join in any conversation. My team came along (read Anko was out of spending money and banks were closed for the night, so she dragged Akira and Kazumi along so that she wouldn't feel bad about it).

So, it went like this. Us Genin talked and laughed. Haku was being polite. Zabuza looked like he was going to fall asleep. Ameyuri looked like she wanted to join in but was having an internal strife. And Anko was gorging her already stuffed self.

All in all, not a bad place to be at all.

 **A/N:** *dodges sharp pointy looking things* Ehehehehe. Two words. Harry Potter. I now have a favorite authoress. And the _fanfiction_ of Harry Potter too. But, I haven't been neglecting my baby though. Rate and review people. Toodles. :)


	11. Chapter 11

**Previously:** Teams Seven and Twelve help save Wave and form an official alliance with them. Zabuza and team accept asylum in Konoha until the civil war that's plaguing their country subsides. Daisuke plans on giving his mother's Katana to Sasuke.

 **Disclaimer:** I do not own Naruto, Kishi does. But, Daisuke, Akira and Kazumi are mine though.

 **-O_O-**

Life in Konoha was settling back to normal for us. Sasuke, Naruto and Sakura went on their own missions. Zabuza, Ameyuri and Haku went out in the mornings and came back for dinner. Team Twelve were now fully immersed in preparing Training Ground 44 for the Chuunin Exams. I'm now with Team Twelve in the week that we'd come back, hard at work in studying the runes that complex seals required to summon the Chuunin who would guide the finishing Genin to the tower in the training ground. The whole lot of us gained a level of competence in sealing once I showed them how the sealing art worked.

"Ne Anko?", I asked. Kazumi and Akira glanced up.

"Hm?", she asked still looking at the seal she was building.

"How long would it take for us to cover the whole training ground in a seal?"

"Depends upon the seal.", she replied, looking at me with interest. "Whatcha got in mind?"

"How about a seal that would restrict the user's chakra usage per day? To say about 300 points?"

"Four maybe five days. But why?", she asked.

"Level the playing field.", I replied shrugging. "On one end of the spectrum, we'll have graduates fresh from the academy. On the other hand, we'll have repeaters, who'll have biologically more chakra than the young Genin."

"Interesting thought.", she agreed. "I'll take it up with the old man today afternoon. The main thing with that problem will be the time constraint. We have to absolutely have the ground ready in twelve days."

"Yeah okay, Anko.", I replied getting back to the assignment at hand. Kazumi, Akira and I have it simultaneously easy and hard compared to the Chuunin breaking their backs I the ground. Easier as in, we didn't have to do any bulk work for her, but harder as in we had to complete the Level four of twelve for seal mastery in about two more days. It wasn't difficult to study per se, but the amount of information was staggering. An hour later, we broke up for lunch. I opted to go with Anko to the mansion and see what happened about my proposal.

We broke up at the shopping district, where the two of them headed to the direction of a Takoyaki stand; Anko and I went on ahead to the mansion. On reaching the Hokage's office Anko informed him of the progress of preparing the ground and then asked him about my proposal.

He thought for a while and chuckled. The deep throaty one that showed that he was amused.

"It's a good thought Daisuke-kun. Like Anko said, your main constraint would be time. If Jiraiya was here though, we could significantly cut down the time required. But, he's coming only after five days..", he mused.

"Fine.", he said with a flourish. "Do everything you can to finish our initial preparations first. Leave the last three days for seal preparation."

"Hai!", the both of us chorused and saluted. On coming out I asked, "We'll go to that Takoyaki stand that those two went off to?", I asked.

"Fine, fancy eyes. Lead the way.", she replied.

By the time we reached, Kazumi had finished and Akira was going through his seventh plate. We placed our orders and waited. While waiting we informed them of what happened in the mansion and the Hokage's decision. Kazumi's face lit up when we told her that Jiraiya might be the one helping us. After finishing lunch, we went back to the training ground to resume study.

That evening, we were to test the seals that the three of us indigenously made without one another's help. Anko would provide us with three beetles for the task. Applying chakra to the seals, laying them on the ground and breathing life to them, we were ready for Anko's beetles. She came, bottle and pad in hand with three beetles in the bottle. She first laid a beetle on Akira's seal and activated it. It vanished with a puff and appeared on the sister seal. Critically checking the summoned beetle for any deviances and wrote down something on the pad she had, let it go. We were all pretty much proficient in the level three works by now, so all of the beetles were summoned unscathed. She smiled and looked at us.

"No need to look so nervous midgets.", she laughed. "There is only one other test I wish to do with these seals. You all passed the first test."

Grinning she continued," Dango on me this evening I think."

We cheered. It was almost time for dinner, by the time we dispersed. By the time I reached the compound, I found Zabuza sitting quietly near the entrance.

"Have you found a house that you want to be a tenant of Zabuza-san?", I queried.

He chuckled and replied," Yes actually, we have. But, I can't seem to get any peace, as that blond fuzz ball won't leave us alone. Your brother in stark contrast went up to sleep."

I snorted.

"That's them alright.", I replied. I looked at him curiously. "Do you carry that sword with you always?", I asked.

"It's been ingrained into me, runt. This sword brings me my food while at the same time cuts down my enemies. It would be no exaggeration to call it my brother.", he replied seriously.

"May I ask you one more thing?", I asked.

"You just did.", he smirked. "But I'm willing to give you a free pass. Shoot."

"We have a katana at home called Nyusatsu-to. It was originally made for my mother, who had a slender and lithe build. I plan on giving it to Sasuke. Would you give your professional opinion as to whether it would be a good fit for him if I give it to you for examination?"

He gave me a _look_. Then smiled creepily. "Sure, runt. Lead the way."

I took him to the room. If he'd seen the summoning scrolls, he didn't comment. I fished out the katana and showed it to him. He unsheathed it and channeled chakra along the blade's length. The temperature in the room fell. The length of the blade was now coated with water and glowed a bit. Only it didn't behave like water. It looked exceptionally sharp and extended at least three inches ahead of the blade.

"Hmm. Chakra conducting metal too. Good build and certainly in very good condition. The wielder of this blade took very good care of her. Tender Hands indeed. It would fit Sasuke very well.", he smiled at me. "But be warned. This blade is fit with an array of seals along the blade, I'd imagine along the lettering in the blade. They consumed some of my chakra. I'd want a seal academic to take a look at it first before any chakra is channeled through it again."

"Thanks, Zabuza-san.", I replied. "I'll be sure to tell someone to look at it." Looking at the time I exclaimed," Oh wow! Look at the time! Please wait Zabuza-san, I'll prepare dinner in a few."

As Zabuza and I were going down the stairs, Sasuke came out of his room.

"Hey, sleepyhead.", I teased. "How was training?"

"Horrible. We do nothing but D-ranks in the morning and then through Kakashi's version of hell in the evening. It's so tiresome.", he replied.

"I'm going to prepare dinner. Anything specific that you want?", I asked.

"Tomato soup and salted rice.", he promptly replied.

I smirked. "Okay then. Coming down?"

"Nah. I'll get ready first. Can't come down looking like a dried-up gondola."

Zabuza was looking at our interaction with a look of amusement.

"Do I get a choice?", he asked teasing.

"We have eggs, tomatoes, noodles, some meat and lots and lots of salt.", I replied snorting. "Take your pick."

"Meat, Rare."

"Got it. And that's it for everyone. Rice, soup and meat."

Going down, I finally saw the true length of what Naruto had done. He had Haku and him arguing animatedly in the most exciting of conversation of, get this, which was better Ramen or Yakisoba. Ameyuri looked like she wanted to laugh, but was severely restraining herself. Zabuza took a seat near them and started arguing that it was _Udon,_ which was the best. Which led to the two debaters looking at him in horror and Ameyuri's full blown out laughing.

Halfway through making dinner, Sasuke came down. One look at the state of the kitchen had him looking towards me incredulously. I shrugged, smirking.

Once dinner was prepared and everyone calm, it was decided that, all three were equally good and reined over three different noodle and stuffed meat kingdoms respectively. Thankfully, all of the Mist ninja were civilized and ate at a slow pace. Not, the food slaughterfest that Anko did. I shuddered.

"Okay there Daisuke?", Sasuke asked.

"Anko.", I replied.

He nodded solemnly and continued eating. Once dinner was over and the dishes done, we were lazing around talking idly.

"So anything else you guys do around here, after eating? Other than read books that is.", Ameyuri asked. I looked at her surprised. "Oh don't give me that look. I'm as sane as you.", she smirked.

"Well.", I allowed. "We train."

Sasuke groaned.

"Train?", she asked quizzically. Then I showed her. I walked up to the side of a wall and sat there.

"And what do you accomplish to train doing that?", she asked.

"Why, my chakra network, of course.", I replied. "Although this is becoming quickly obsolete for us. We need something more chakra intensive to do.", I said jumping down.

She looked at me like I'd grown a duplicate head. And then at Zabuza, who was doing the same. I looked at them gob smacked.

"You don't know of this?!", I asked absolutely astounded.

"Well.", I began. "The chakra network is like a muscle."

"There he goes into lecture mode.", Sasuke muttered.

Pointedly ignoring him, I continued. "Frequently emptying the chakra network allows it to grow. Why do you think it feels so disorienting when you're close to chakra exhaustion? It's a bit like exercising, only with chakra. But caution must be exercised. This must be done only once every three or four days."

"If you're skeptical, you can measure Sasuke's chakra. Naruto is a special case, as you all know. Wait, I'll get the chakra measuring paper.", I smirked. We had tons of those at home. When our _esteemed father_ was head of the clan (I scowled), he used these to measure the chakra of graduates who were finishing the academy. They were spotless and a bright white, no matter what happened. As chakra was applied, the darker the paper turned.

I brought down a few with myself and handed one to everyone, taking one for myself last. First, I asked Ameyuri and Zabuza to apply chakra to their paper. They turned a dark matte black Zabuza's perhaps a shade darker. Then I asked Haku to apply chakra to his. It turned a dark grey. I smirked. Next, I told Sasuke to activate his. It turned a shade of grey much darker than Haku's. Zabuza and Ameyuri looked shocked. Next, I activated mine. It was a few shades darker than Sasuke's. Finally, I asked Naruto to apply chakra to his. Like I expected, it turned a dark midnight black. It was darker than anyone's in the room.

"So, was that enough excitement for you Ameyuri?", I asked smirking.

"Hoo, yes. Please reserve any more surprises for later." she replied. We dispersed after that, the Mist trio, leaving through the front door having taken the house adjacent to ours, which was formerly Shisui's parents' house.

Naruto and Sasuke went to their respective rooms and I went to mine, brushed my teeth and went to sleep.

 **-O_O-**

The next day during breakfast, I brought out the sword and handed it to Sasuke. He choked up. Naruto sensing that it was an intensely personal moment, was about to give us some space when ," Naruto don't be an idiot. You're as much as a part of this family as we are. C'mere."

Naruto's eyes teared up, went and hugged Sasuke. I smiled and went ahead with eating my breakfast. Later that morning, we went through the second set of tests that Anko wanted to do on our seals. She used squirrels this time. Even with the bigger animals, the seals worked flawlessly. The main purpose of this test was to determine that, although Anko was supplying us with the seal, the three of us actually _knew_ how to do it so that we were able to improvise, if we forgot Anko's seal formula. Not that we had the actual guts to forget her formula. It was just in case of emergencies.

Once she was satisfied, we went on towards the Level four of seal mastery, which was supposed to be the end of the beginner level of sealing. I was definitely interested and wanted to study seals some more. I would probably take it up with Anko later, her being the former student of a seal master and all.

Level four was absurdly easy. It told us how we would able to, with just the application of chakra be able to apply seals. There were very rudimentary exercises in the textbook, since this was the basics for intermediate and advanced sealing levels, that thoroughly tested the application of seals with the help of chakra. This was particularly useful as, firstly seals with large amounts of instruction could be easily executed without prior preparation. Secondly, it was very convenient and portable since we didn't have to carry extra scrolls for the seal to actually be written on.

Although, I think that it was perhaps an opinion only shared by me. Kazumi flat out refused to try it after a simple storage seal of hers blew up and Akira couldn't even get his seal to activate, although the both of them were easily able to easily manipulate the chakra for the seal writings. After being subjected to glares that promised murder if I didn't show them what I was doing right that they were doing wrong, I showed them slowly what I was doing. It was then, that I found out what was happening. Akira applied far too less chakra for his seal to stabilize, while Kazumi's chakra was constantly fluctuating. When I pointed this out to her, she was shocked and didn't know that she was doing that.

After the corrections were done, both of them had perfectly working seals that were crafted by pure chakra manipulation. Therefore, by the allotted time, we finished the beginner's level to seals and was about nine tenths' through _Fundamentals and Concepts of Sealing_. The rest of it was basically just an introduction to the Intermediate course and the books that the author recommended. An interesting thing to note was that, after all twelve levels, there were _three_ extra levels that were termed Uzumaki and that the author himself was unable to perform.

All that was left was, to finish the four hundred seals, to deliver the sister seal to the Chuunin and apply it on their person and extend a formal invitation to the Jonin who were sensei to the participating teams. I called dibs on the Chuunin, since it was the easiest thing to do. Akira and Kazumi decided on the eagle post for visiting Jonin and the local invitations-cum-invitation drafting respectively.

That evening, an interesting thing happened with my weekly training session with Hinata. I'd introduced her to Buroura no ken, which she flawlessly integrated with her clan's fighting style. That evening, I lost my spar against Hinata for the first time. She was steadily getting more and more confident in her abilities and was able to go toe-for-toe with me. Even though I was fighting with Sharingan on, without the Buroura no ken though. But still, she was able to effortlessly take chance of the faux-openings I showed and turned them into advantages of her own. Not that I took it lying down, I retaliated with a level of tenacity that I execute only on _Naruto._ It was terrifying yet at the same time, heart-warming to see her actually beating me in that state. I was proud of what she had achieved.

"That was _intense_ ", I panted after finishing the cooldown exercises that I do and lied down.

"Agreed.", she replied. "You didn't lose on purpose did you Daisuke?"

"What?! No. I was giving it all that I had. Well, not _all",_ I added thinking of the Mangekyo. "Most. In fact, I wanted to say that I'm very proud of what you've achieved today."

She turned into a tomato. "No need to be embarrassed.", laughed. "Tell you what."

She looked at me. "Get into the Chuunin exam finals and I'll treat Ko, you and your father to anything y'all want. Deal?"

She smiled. "Sure, you're the one who arranged this with father after all."

"Anyways, let's finish for today. I spy Ko giving me the, not so subtle death glare.", I laughed. I got up and pulled her up along with me. We went upto, the gates, said our goodbyes and went our ways. As I walked towards home, I reflected as to how much had actually changed from the timeline that I knew. Naruto's being treated relatively better and not lonely. Team Twelve. Hinata's newfound confidence. Anko as our sensei. Zabuza and Haku alive. Jiraiya's early entry. Me. At this, I snorted. I couldn't do much other than the glaringly obvious cases of Naruto and Hinata. Dispersing all thoughts, I hurried home. Jiraiya most probably would be coming tomorrow. I _was not_ keen on meeting him, I hadn't even pushed the Hokage in that direction anyway! Sure he's a powerful ninja and lots of things he's done has he's actually earned. But, in my opinion anyway, he'd failed Minato. It was no secret that he'd trained the Fourth and didn't have the decency to take care of Naruto, village duties be damned.

Sasuke, Naruto and the others caught on to my bad mood when I was preparing dinner and kept quiet. During dinner, everyone was looking really somber. One look at each of their faces and I started laughing. The mood instantly lifted. Everyone in the table began talking animatedly with each other.

That night when I went to sleep, I was _not_ looking forward to the next day. I was a very impulsive person. And I didn't want Jiraiya, who has honed his skills as a spy, to try and psychoanalyze _me._ With these troubled thoughts, I went to bed.

 **-O_O-**

The next day, I took my sweet time with applying the sister seals to the Chuunin. All in all, about a hundred and twenty Chuunin were to be tagged. I walked from place to place, asking the ninja present if they've seen the person I was looking for. When I found them, I informed them that they should've received an intimation stating that a seal was going to be applied upon them and that no there was no explosive embedded within and that yes it would activate only for a few days during the time of the second task of the Chuunin exam.

By the time I was finished, the sun was already just about kissing the horizon. I went and reported to Anko and the others that all official preparations had finished from my side and that only the final seal had to be applied.

"Hey fancy eyes. All done?"

"Yep. All Chuunin consented to application of seal without any refusal on their part. Has Jiraiya arrived yet?", I asked.

She smirked. "I think that the guy coming up behind you can answer that."

I turned and seeing who was coming, scowled. For it was none other than Jiraiya. He came towering at probably 6'5" or 6'7" and all powerful looking. It would've been an intimidating sight too, if he had not actually stopped in front of us, did that god awful dance of his, waggled his eyebrows at Anko and said something very, very inappropriate, considering present company. I huffed and rolled my eyes. Anko took out a rusty kunai. Kazumi looked like an atheist who'd met God. Akira looked flabbergasted.

"Okay, okay let's calm down. Yes, I'm a super pervert and is a way of life or me. I earn millions thanks to it and hate anyone who judges it. Now, moving on. Show me that seal.", he said to Anko, holding his hand out.

"Oh?", she asked what I think was supposed to be a seductive voice, but sent shudders down my spine. "Whoever said that it was me who'd thought the seal up?"

"Well, you're the only Level Seven seal master here who does a decent job of sealing, so I thought it was you.", he replied confused. "Who designed it?"

"Oh that's why you're here Jiraiya-sama. We- sorry, _he_ came up with the idea.", Anko pointed at me. "I should also mention, he mastered the first four levels in _five days_." Emphasis on the five days part.

I glared at her. She smirked. Jiraiya's eyes lit up. "I must say that my team-mates also did the same thing!", I exclaimed. He looked at them too surprised.

"Oh, we wouldn't have been able to do it with Daisuke's help.", Akira retorted. Kazumi just nodded.

"But still, being able to master the beginner's level along with me has got to account for something doesn't it?", I shot back.

"A test is in order I think.", Jiraiya exclaimed in glee.

"If the responsibility of the training ground seal were to be entrusted to the three of you individually, how would the three of you design your seals? You have one and a half hours. Go!"

"Jiraiya-sama, since we have the advantage of using seals made only out of our chakra, can we use it?", I asked. " _I don't want to be doing this any longer than need be._ ", I thought.

He gave me a genuine smile, which made me feel a little guilty. "Yes you all may.", he replied.

Since he allowed us to use the chakra seals, we all finished within twenty minutes, me in five, only thought going into the construction of the seal. Kazumi took the longest and had a long complicated looking seal. Akira's and my seals were small and simple.

We handed the constructed seals to him. He looked through all of them and smiled at us. And whispered something to Anko, she grinned.

"Here's the verdict.", he began. "Akira, a very good seal, short and crisp. Good mind for thinking. But, if one knew that there was a seal present and figured out how it worked, they would be able to work around the limiter. But hats off.", he clapped, motioning us to join in as well. Akira turned a bit red.

Then he turned to Kazumi. "Kazumi.", he smiled. "Very thorough, limiting even the chakra of animals or creatures that seem like animals, even though I see one small loophole. Very good. Critical thinking comes easily to you I see. But what you accomplished in a hundred lines," he turned to me smiling, "Daisuke managed in twenty."

I was shocked. How could _that thing_ have won? I turned to her, she looked as shocked as I was.

"His limiter is tight. If this seal were applied, even _seals_ that store chakra, no matter what the upper bound, would still hold only the amount he desired it hold. Instead of specifying living beings, he actually has coded it to _anything._ Now, I see why you brought him to my attention Anko. He might be the second coming of the fourth."

At this, my shock turned to anger. But, not wanting to disrespect him, held my tongue. He caught the movement, but decided to keep quiet.

"But, I'd only like to add one more correction, Daisuke.", he dictated. I raised my eyebrows. "I would add an exception only for Anko's and my chakra signatures. After all, we don't want the seal to act up against the organizers after all."

I nodded but kept quiet. It was then decided that, my seal would be engraved below the cement base of the fence which was buried under the mud, so that it wasn't discovered.

Later that night, Jiraiya kept following me.

"Anything I can help you with Jiraiya-sama?", I asked politely.

"Well, seeing that I need a place to crash and you have a huge compound at your disposal, I thought it would be a good idea to ask you if I could stay there until the exam finished?", he asked.

"No.", I replied. He sighed behind me.

"But you would allow three foreign ninja?", he asked. "Kid this is the first time I'm actually meeting you. Do you and I have a problem?"

"One word.", I replied, turning, my voice frosty. "Naruto." His face fell. "It's no secret that the fourth was your student. Anyone with a half-decent brain could suspect that Naruto is related to him, if not his son. I hate this plausible deniability thing that you and the Hokage have going on here. I remember my mother talking about one Kushina Uzumaki being her best friend and that her love was one for the ages. She was evasive when I asked who he was. But, with a name like Naruto Uzumaki and that shade of blonde hair, I can safely conclude that the fourth was indeed her husband. I'm angry when I think that Naruto would still hold the ground you walk dear, when he learns that you are here and you don't deserve any of that praise.", I ranted. His face kept falling as I went on with my rant.

He let out a hollow chuckle. "You're very sharp kid. I can see how my comments earlier would've offended you. Frankly, I asked you if I could come stay just to see him. I had the audacity to ask you of this when you've been taking care of him all these years. I'll stay out of your hair."

He sounded like a broken man. _"That day, he not only lost a student, but also his family in Kushina, not to mention Tsunade. I think I was a bit harsh with what I said."_

"Hold up Jiraiya-sama. I never said that there wasn't any room for forgiveness. A person who's lost as much as you have and are still working tirelessly for the sake of Konoha, inspires a lot of girls and boys in my generation.", I said resigned. He turned back and looked at me, eyes hopeful.

"And yes, it means that you can come to the compound to see him.", His face lit up like a light bulb. "But, please don't do anything that you usually would do. I like him nice and innocent."

He guffawed. "Seriously, moi. Do something? I wouldn't dare to." I looked at him skeptically, shook my head in resignation and continued walking toward the compound. When we reached, someone, Zabuza by the sounds of it, hollered that everyone was in the kitchen.

I walked in with Jiraiya. The whole kitchen went quiet.

"Damn, runt. You're getting to be quite the collector.", Zabuza blurted. My cheeks flamed.

"I'm not collecting anything!", I replied hotly.

"You sure?", he retorted. "Nine-tails, Uchiha, Uchiha, Swordsman, Swordswoman, Yuki, and Sannin.", he intoned pointing to the relevant person, when their name or title came up.

"You can't include me if I'm the collector! Tell them!", I exclaimed, looking at Jiraiya.

"My brother everyone.", Sasuke snorted. This had everyone in the room laughing.

"Fine. BE that way.", I replied miffed.

I set down the groceries and went to prepare dinner. Haku came up to help.

"Erm. What are you doing?", I asked him.

"Helping you prepare dinner obviously.", he replied smiling. "It's the least we can do. After all, you're about the only person in Konoha who treats us normally."

"What do you mean by that?!", I asked anger flaring.

"Oh no no! It's not like that Daisuke-san.", he giggled. " _I swear, if I didn't know for sure that he was a guy, I'd totally be falling for him_ ", I thought. "People look at Zabuza-sama and Ameyuri-sama with awe and therefore do not approach us. The only people who have are ninja that have those nin-dogs as partners, the bug-users and a bearded guy and his team Sometimes people approach them for autographs, but that's it. Most of the civilians are frightened of them, though. Everyone in the hospital are amazing. I'm beginning to love Konoha."

"Good.", I replied. "I wouldn't want a repeat of Naruto's case."

His face became a little uncomfortable when I mentioned that, but didn't comment.

"Give them time." I advised. "Once they know for sure that y'all are actually very decent, as both ninja and humans, they'll come flocking towards you." He smiled at me gratefully. With his help, we were able to finish preparing for dinner quickly and as dinner was served,

Sasuke asked Jiraiya about his travels. And he began. Jiraiya enthralled us with stories of the fall and rise of nations, of people thought to exist only in the realm of legend and many more. He was still at it after dinner. It was way past bed time by the time I intervened.

 _Everyone_ groaned. Jiraiya looked at me smug. I smirked back and nodded. Jiraiya took the couch in the living room as he didn't want to waste the living space of a whole _house_ for the time of his stay. The all of us dispersed and went to the realm of dreams, inspired by the tales that Jiraiya told us of in his oration.

 **-O_O-**

The next day Anko swore Team Twelve to secrecy and that the leakage of this particular piece of information is no less than treason and was punishable by the cancellation of our ninja status at the least and death by the worst. We gulped and nodded. Jiraiya was with us all solemn looking. We went a ways far ahead of training ground 44 where she showed us a faux ground that was actually a secret entrance to the part of T-44 that was below the ground.

We went through the entrance, Anko leading us with a torch lit. It might've been my imagination, but it took us longer to reach T-44's base. Anko slowed down and finally stopped. She nodded at Jiraiya. He took out the scroll that had the seal in it and set it on the ground. He began to draw another intricate seal in the place asking Anko specifically where the boundaries were situated and what not. Interested, I followed them. Akira and Kazumi weren't far behind. After what seemed like hours, we came back to the place where the scroll holding the seal sat.

"Seal!", he muttered. The whole place glowed a bright blue for a few seconds and faded. "Well, I don't know about you guys, but I'm pretty hungry. Let's break up for lunch.", he advised. "If you're interested, you may return, otherwise dismissed for the day.", Anko added. "It'll be pretty much the same thing over and over at least for five more times."

During lunch, we decided that we would go back. It was rare to see a level twelve seal master at work after all. We split up, going to our respective homes. Lunch was a pretty simple affair since it was only me. A small pot of boiled rice with eggs. It took about twenty minutes to prepare and ten more to finish. Since, I had nothing better to do, I went to Akira's home. His parents were very warm and welcoming. We talked for about twenty minutes, when we decided that we would leave back to the assigned meeting place.

As we were exiting his home and entering the shopping, we spotted Kazumi. We joined her and headed to the secret entrance. Discretely. We had no idea to know if Jiraiya and Anko had already entered, so we entered closed the ground lit a torch and waited. Surely enough, a few minutes later we heard animated voices coming towards us.

As we went to the place where the sealing was going on, they were still discussing something. On reaching, they discussed for a few more moments, came to a conclusion and Jiraiya went ahead with the sealing. After two more rounds, which went significantly faster, we broke for the day. Anko informed that only two more rounds were remaining and that we could take the day off the next day.

I told Jiraiya to go ahead, as I had something of a gift I'd ordered for Hinata seeing that the next evening was training evening. I went to the store where I usually get my items and gave the clerk the bill. He smiled at me and nodded. He went to the backside of the shop, brought it out front and explained its features to me. I thanked him and walked out of the store, immensely satisfied.

When I reached home, I found that Jiraiya was actually more tired than he showed and was fast asleep on the couch. No one had come back yet, so I went ahead and started preparing dinner. By the time I'd finished, it was late evening and I was immensely bored. Making up my mind, I went out and headed to the Nara compound. Thankfully, Team Ten could be seen returning from their training regimen and were at home. I caught Shika's eyes and smirked. He smirked back. I walked upto them. They looked like they'd run a mile, considering Asuma they might as well have. As I went towards them, Ino started blushing. I ignored this and went straight to Shika and Choji.

"How's life as a Genin treatin y'all?", I asked.

"Hate/Love it", they chorused. I chuckled. Shika was looking at his team-mates with an utter betrayal face. I think it was directed especially at Choji.

"And what about you Daisuke-kun?", Ino asked.

"I am enjoying it.", I replied smiling at her. She smiled back. "Training got over quickly today.", I told them "Can I stay over for sometime Shika? Or we could go out somewhere. It's upto you guys."

"Come home. It's been quite a while. Mum would love to see you.", he invited. I smiled.

"Sure Shika."

We split up at the entrance to the compound, Choji promising that he'd come by later. Entering Shika's home, I was hit by a wave of nostalgia. It was quite sometime since I'd been here and it felt safe. Yoshino was in the veranda reading a book. Spotting us she smiled widely.

"Mah mah! Look who's given the honor of gracing us with his presence.", she teased. I was embarrassed.

"Hello Yoshino oba-san.", I replied. "Sorry. I've been busy, I promise to come visit more often."

She came upto us and hugged me. Going to hug Shika, she stiffened face going all stern. "Why do I see mud on what was my spotless floor, leading up to your legs Shika?", she asked in a sweet voice. He paled. It reminded me of mum when I'd activated the Sharingan. I shuddered. Shika also did next to me. He started receiving the shout-down of the century and I quietly slid into the living room. When Choji came in, she was still going at it. It stopped a few minutes later and Shika entered the room, looking sparkly clean.

"Troublesome woman.", he muttered.

We talked and caught up on each other's lives, although I was careful to avoid any details of me being a part organizer for the Chuunin exam. Asuma had given them the invitations today and the team was excited. All of them were entering the next day.

Yoshino, in true Yoshino fashion whipped up beautiful looking snacks and took part in the conversation too. Before long, it was about time for everyone to have returned at the compound. I politely excused myself, thanking Yoshino for the food, which earned me a bop in the head from her. She told me to go visit, Kojima oba when I was free. I said that I definitely would and waved at them heading towards the compound. I heard what I thought was an explosion and a flash of light coming from there.

Worried, I chakra-ran all the way towards the compound. I ran inside towards on of the training grounds to find-

A ninjutsu match. The explosion I heard was Ameyuri going through her sword's kata, with ninjutsu. Everyone turned to look at me.

I was glaring at them.

"Who's obviously stupid idea was this?!", I asked. Everyone pointed towards Jiraiya, who was pointing at himself. Looking at where he was pointing, he corrected himself and pointed towards Naruto, who exclaimed,"Oi!"

"Who all have finished?", I asked. "No one.", Zabuza replied. "Ameyuri was going first."

" _Why hasn't anyone come?_ ", I wondered. " _Isn't performing ninjutsu within the village banned?_ " And then I realized that, since we were inside a training ground within a compound and that was quite a ways from the civilian district. And since _Jiraiya_ of all people was overlooking it, I think no one saw fit to intervene. I sighed.

"Where do I sign up?", I asked. Everyone cheered.

It was decided that we would go in alphabetical order. Ameyuri first, me second so on. She began again. It was frankly, quite beautiful. She travelled with the swords as one. When the thrusted, small streaks of lightning would flow from the tip of the blade towards the direction of the thrust. The sound was quite loud and when she'd finished everyone clapped. Next was my turn. I thought of something and smirked.

My ninjutsu arsenal was quite limited, but whatever I knew I'd mastered. Looking to the sky, I started off with a Phoenix Fire and shot off three fireballs. Next, I did the seals for the Grand Fireball jutsu and launched it exactly in the middle of the three still burning fireballs. The overall effect was the look of a completely awakened Sharingan.

"Damn, that was my idea Daisuke!,", Sasuke shouted from behind me amidst everyone's clapping. I chuckled at him and turning around winked.

Haku was up next. He took his bottle and slowed some water to fall where he was standing. He went some distance and poured water there too. I knew what was coming next. Focusing on his kekkei-genkai, he formed an ice mirror where he was standing and stepped into it. Another mirror formed from where he first poured water and out he stepped from it a smile on his face.

Next was Jiraiya's turn. He warned us to stay back. He ran a few feet and jumped high and forward in a sort of curl. When he got a good roll, going spikes flew out from what should have been his hair. We cheered.

Naruto was up next. He grinned at everyone madly. " _Oh, shit!",_ I thought.

" ** _Kage Bunshin",_** he shouted. He filled the area with about ten shadow clones. And then," **_Henge!_** ". Every _person_ in that place fell back, blood spurting from his or her nose. For in front of us stood a bevy of beautiful, scantily clad women, all provoking us to *ahem* _go_ for them. "Harem Jutsu complete.", Naruto grinned, dispelling everything.

Sasuke glared at him. Grumbling something about how blonds were stupid and that their jutsu were life-threatening, he went up front and face away from us, towards the river. I knew right then what was coming. Doing the seals for the Grand Fireball, he took a deep breath and let loose the biggest fireball I've seen him perform till date. It scorched everything in it's path and only got extinguished as it reached the river. I cheered hard and woo-hooed his effort. He was slightly embarassed by the praise.

"Well, Zabuza-san. You're next.", I said, someone still perversely sniggering. He then went up front. Breathing deeply he began doing a long sequence of seals, not as long as required for the water dragon, but long nevertheless. After finishing them, he jumped high. From his hand, came a swirling cortex tornado of death. It was swirling fast enough to pick up a decent wind where we were standing. As he landed, he slowed it down and still swirling stopped it and splashed around him.

Everyone was in high spirits as we went in. All that was left to do was to feed seven hungry ninja. I reheated what I'd made before and all of us sat down and ate. After dinner, Naruto and Sasuke announced that Kakashi had given them the Chuunin exam invitations. Both were pretty psyched about it. We talked about the coming Chuunin exams and Jiraiya told us the story of how his team was the first in Konoha to have finished the Chuunin exam on their first try. He said very few had achieved that afterward and that Sakumo's team almost made it through. Apparently, mom hit puberty right on the day of the finals and couldn't compete.

Since the next day was an important one for Naruto and Sasuke, I played the spoilsport and shoo'ed everyone away. Sleep that night came to me fitfully.

 **-O_O-**

As the next day was a day off, I planned on going to the Hagoromo compound and invite Kazumi to Akira's place. Since, meeting Kojima-oba was on the iterinary, it would be convenient too. Kazumi was apparently still asleep by the time I got to her place. I grinned hearing that.

"Seriously, that girl! I'm sorry Uchiha-sama. I'll wake her up.", her mum apologized.

"Oh no, no. Take your time.", I replied, getting embarrassed. "Please call me Daisuke. Uchiha-sama is too big of an honor to bestow upon me."

"Alright then… Daisuke.", she replied, smiling. She went up, calling her daughter's name. It was quite some time later that she came down, looking at her I smirked.

"Why Kazumi, I thought you'd usually be awake by dawn?", I teased.

She blushed. "Today's off!", she replied. Then her stomach took this prime time to rumble. Her whole head turned the shade of a tomato.

"Go eat. I was thinking we'd go to Akira's place.", I chuckled. She nodded and went off to her kitchen, had her breakfast quickly and came out. Grabbing her gear, she motioned to me that she was ready.

We went at a slow pace, taking in the beautiful day, walking lazily towards where the Akimichi-Nara-Yamanaka compound was located. I went up to Akira's home and knocked. He opened the door and looking at us was pleasantly surprised. He hugged the both of us and invited us in. Going in, I took a look around. It was built in a similar fashion to Shika's home, but still had it's own uniqueness. I figured that during the construction of the compound, the clans would have wanted the living quarters to be built as soon as possible to enter Konoha's specifically, Hashirama and Madara's security.

His mother Tsugumi was a sweet woman who absolutely doted on us, embarrassing Akira.

"Mooom!", he wailed. She looked at him, miffed.

"As long as I'm concerned, you're all still children. You rarely bring friends home. Let me do my job and enjoy this.", she scolded. He looked still a little put out. We lazed around the whole day doing nothing. I originally made plans to ask the both of them out for lunch, but his mom wouldn't have any of it and insisted that we stay for lunch. I settled for dinner, to which she readily accepted, grinning. I looked at her suspiciously.

After lunch, I told them that I promised to meet Kojima-oba and absolutely had to meet her. Akira said he'd come along, since she had the best snacks ever, Kazumi just shook her head and came along.

We went up to Choji's home and knocked. Something smelled really good. He opened the door, smiled at us and told us in to come in. His mom welcomed us eagerly. And that's when my dinner plan came crashing down. She led us to the backyard, where I saw almost all of the women I knew from all three clans preparing for a massive feast, seeing that the team that hosted the clan heirs were about to take their first Chuunin exam. I face palmed. Then, I made a shadow clone and told him to inform Jiraiya, Zabuza or Ameyuri that I most probably wouldn't be coming for dinner tonight and that they could eat outside or have my shadow clone prepare dinner. It was their choice. He nodded and set off.

Team Twelve helped prepare for the big feast. I knew Ino's mother in passing and greeted her warmly. She smiled at me and nodded back. I'd been meaning to ask her about her team, but always something came up. I decided to ask her tonight, when she was free. As evening rolled over, Shika and his dad Shkaku came along and started helping around, giving furtive glances towards Yoshino. I could literally feel the smirk coming from where she was.

The feast in itself was amazing. Akira went off with his mother, who smirked at me. Kazumi went to meet some of her classmates from the academy. Everyone was smiling and congratulating Team Ten. Ino drunk it all in. Choji seemed embarrassed and kept rubbing the back of his head. Shika looked bored. Looking at them, I chuckled.

"How do you find being a Genin Daisuke?", a voice asked behind me. I turned around to see who it was. Shikaku was looking down at me giving a sort of crooked grin.

"It's actually pretty great, Shikaku-oji.", I replied. "I'm having lots of fun with my team-mates and going on missions with them."

"Why aren't you participating?", he asked.

I rolled my eyes. "Like you don't know.", I replied. He just grinned at that.

"Good move, kid."

I couldn't get to talk with Mikino-san that night. Virtually stuffed with food, Kazumi and I profusely thanked everyone for their hospitality and excused ourselves. I dropped off Kazumi at her home and went towards the compound. Reaching, I went straight home and surprisingly, everyone had already left. Naruto and Sasuke were nowhere to be see, probably sleeping upstairs. Jiraiya, when I entered the kitchen confirmed this.

He informed me that the seal had been set perfectly and that no one could use more than three hundred points of chakra than either Jiraiya or Anko. This was tested by the Hokage himself, who complimented our team and informed Anko that the each of us would be receiving a huge bonus. I was speechless and sputtered at the value he mentioned.

I then remembered Hinata's present. I wanted her to absolutely have it, so went upstairs grabbed it, informed Jiraiya that I'd be back in a few and ran out of the house. I reached the Hyuuga compound in about ten minutes and requested to see Hinata.

"Ta-DAAAA!," I exclaimed to her as she came out, showing her the chakra resistant armor that I'd gotten her. She was speechless. I informed her that it grew along with the user as iwas keyed to the user's chakra and as a security measure will grow very unpleasant to be in if anyone else tried and put it on. I'd gotten her this to give her a huge advantage in her fight against Neji.

She teared up a bit.

"Thanks, Daisuke.", she allowed. "But, this is too expensive of a gift. I can't probably accept this!"

"Expensive, frexensive." I chided. "I wanted to buy it so I bought it."

She nodded once and thanked me heartedly. Explaining that she had to get up early tomorrow and that she had to go to sleep early and excused herself.

I went back to the compound lethargically. Entering home, Jiraiya asked me if I had a hot date night. I retorted rudely.

He chuckled. I wanted to get an early start to the next day, so I retired to bed. As I was about to sleep, a thought occurred which made me sweat a lot. I'd forgotten to factor in Orochimaru. If he found some way to get around the seal, there would be many problems. Not that he probably could with Jiraiya's improvements. With these troubled thoughts, I drifted off to sleep.

 **A/N:** This sorta ran away with me 'O_o. It's a filler yes. But still something to cheer on, cause I've already begun the next chapter. Rate and Review :] Toodles and ciao.


	12. Chapter 12

**Previously:** Jiraiya comes to town. Daisuke gets an idea to seal the whole training ground. The Mist trio are slowly integrating themselves into life in Konoha. The Chuunin exams are about to begin and all of Konoha is a mixture of nervous energy.

 **Disclaimer:** I do not own Naruto, Kishi does. But Akira, Daisuke and Kazumi are mine though. And the idea for the Marauders' Map isn't mine too.

 **-O_O-**

It was a fine morning on the dawn of the first day of the Chuunin exam. Clear skies, no wind and everyone in Konoha wanted to run around like chickens with their heads cut off, but didn't 'cause they had to put up a dignified front to all the visiting ninja. Naruto and Sasuke left early, seeing as they were participating. The both of them knew that I wasn't, but didn't know the _reason_ as to why. Before they left I gave them huge hugs and wished their team all the best. Jiraiya and I left later, leaving directly to the training ground.

The written test or the "first stage", of the exam lasted for three hours and would be just after lunch that the passing Genin would arrive at the training ground. I was sitting at the receiving area with the Jonin at the lounge, helping where I could. Most of them were laid back, talking amicably and catching up on times. But, there were those few, who were looking about and on their guard and how else do I put it? _Twitchy._

Not that the others hadn't noticed and weren't en garde themselves. Time went by slooowly. Anko was talking to (read flirting with) Asuma, who wasn't giving her the time of day and Kurenai, was glaring at them. He had eyes only for her though.

Seeing this I snorted. Everyone in the room, bar my team-mates who were used to my habits and Jiraiya who was snoring, _jumped_ and looked at me. Seeing this reaction Kazumi and Akira looked at them eyebrows raised.

"You might not want to do that often, kid.", a Sand Jonin chuckled amused. I looked at him and nodded equally amused. After that small altercation, the mood in the room truly relaxed and everyone seemed less antsy.

When we broke for lunch finally, Anko said that she had to go and prepare for her epic entry. I rolled my eyes and went with Jiraiya, Kazumi and Akira for lunch. Along the way, Jiraiya brought up the topic of seals. Since all of us were interested, time flew. He took us to Ichiraku's, where both Teuchi and Ayame who knew me by my association with Naruto, welcomed us warmly. After finishing lunch, they tried to give us a huge discount, which I refused vehemently.

After an epic shout-down, where I reasoned that Jiraiya was the one who was paying and that he already had millions, they should actually overprice us. He squawked behind me and was about to argue. I gave him a _look_. He said rather softly that they needn't overprice or discount, that he would pay the original price.

After getting out from lunch, he looked at me, smirking. "What is it?", I asked. He just smirked wider. We went towards the training ground, but not exactly there. We went inside a building very near to the training ground. There was a setup inside that showed a very detailed layout of the training ground.

"That's a really pretty map.", I snarked at him. "Just tell me what is going on."

"Wait for it kid.", he replied calmly. And wait we did, for a good part of half an hour. Then it happened. Outside of the training ground, I could discern small dots crowding around it. A huge mass of gibberish hovered near them.

"I can't read them!", Akira exclaimed from behind us. Jiraiya chuckled. And ten minutes later when everyone had dispersed off to their gates, we were able to. To say that I was shocked would have been an understatement.

"See those green steps?", he asked. I nodded. "They start turning yellow as the user starts using chakra, the yellow will keep fading depending on the user's chakra level, for example a person with about 50 points will look dark orange. Following me?", he asked. I nodded again. "So when the count turns zero, it becomes red. It will not be akin to chakra exhaustion per se. They won't be able to use their chakra is all."

" _Jiraiya's created the Marauders' Map!",_ I shouted inside my head. " _And added improvements too!"_ the same voice added. I was literally gobsmacked. Now I realized why we were talking about tracking seals while on the way to lunch. He had the gall to stand there and laugh at us. The cheeky bastard! He should've said it outright!

I spotted the Konoha teams immediately. " _Team seven were heading to gate twenty, Team nine to gate forty one, Team ten to gate twenty seven, team eight to gate sixteen…"_

"Ummm…. Jiraiya-sama?", Akira asked behind me.

"Yes?", he asked, still visibly smug that he was able to gobsmack me.

"Why do we have Orochimaru on the map?", he asked timidly. And then I saw his name. Right next to team eight's. I looked at it in horror and then at Jiraiya.

He was looking at the name. Shocked first and then very angry. He looked every bit the dangerous shinobi the stories portrayed him to be. "Runts!", he called to us. Kazumi in front of me, flinched. "You don't go out anywhere! Especially you, Daisuke. Anko and I will handle this. _Do not go anywhere, y'hear me?!"_

"Yes.", the three of us nodded demurely. He handed us some ear-pieces.

"I need to know where he is at all times.", he demanded. "I'll go towards Anko and inform her. She'll be coming with me. And I cannot iterate this enough, but do NOT leave this place. Got it?!", he asked.

"Yes Jiraiya-sama/Jiraiya.", we replied.

He ran out of the room. In some time, I could see him approach Anko near Gate one. In what seemed like seconds, they set off to gate fifteen. Problem was, the exam had already started.

"Runts. You can begin anytime now.", came a voice through the receivers, dripping with sarcasm.

"Right.", I responded. "He's not following any set path towards anybody. Go to your left."

The black dots named Jiraiya and Anko ran towards the direction I told them to. They were getting dangerously close to Naruto and Sasuke. Before they actually reached team seven though, they were confronted by Jiraiya and Anko. It was very short. Orochimaru's dot turned from green to red as soon as the confrontation began with nothing happening. After a few minutes of fighting though, something weird happened. The red Orochimaru dot disappeared and the dot that was next to him changed names to Orochimaru green and ready to go. Akira exclaimed from behind me. I panicked seeing this.

" _He's found a loop-hole!_ ", I thought despairing. He might've activated Anko's curse seal, cause Anko's dots became suddenly rigidly still and Jiraiya went to her quickly. Orochimaru took this opportunity and both his and his other team-mates' dots disappeared from the map. I waited for quite some time, Orochimaru's and his team-mate's dots didn't reappear on the map.

"Jiraiya?", I asked into my speaker.

"Here. Are y'all fine? No ambushes there?", he replied.

"Nothing here." I replied.

"And Orochimaru?", Anko asked, voice rasping and coughing.

"He's gone." I told resignedly into my speaker. "He's not returning." I could hear Anko grunting in pain through her speaker. "Is Anko alright?", asked.

"Bloody hell she isn't.", he shouted into his speaker. "Orochimaru activated her curse seal. In the confusion that followed, he escaped. The seal is pulsing weirdly. I'm going to apply a chakra blocking seal to relieve her of her pain, then allow a medic to look at her. You runts keep safe there. Wait for me."

"I can go on my own.", came Anko's voice obviously struggling.

"No Jiraiya.", I refused. "Wait for us at gate sixteen. We will need you to help if another emergency occurs. Anko we're your minions. If not serve you then who?"

We could hear her chuckling dryly. It was quiet for a while. "Fine.", he admitted. "I'll wait here. You people come asap."

I didn't hear that part though. I'd ran out as soon as he said "Fine".

I heard Akira and Kazumi follow. We reached gate sixteen in under a minute. Anko was visibly struggling. I looked at Jiraiya.

"Haven't you applied the seal yet?", I asked.

"I have. These are the after-effects.", he growled, his face grim. "Although I am loath to admit it, this particular level of sealing is above my own."

"I could see.", I replied. "He found a loop-hole to your limiter."

"If you could call the thing he did as one.", Anko snorted, shivering. "He took over the body of the guy next to him. Not a sight I want to subject you midgets to just yet"

"Anyways, take her to the hospital.", Jiraiya cut us off. "She seems to keep getting worse with time."

"Not to be paranoid or anything.", Kazumi began from behind me. "But what if we encounter Orochimaru on the way to hospital?", she asked.

I thought quickly and turned towards Anko. "Is Anbu codename Neko around?", I asked. She seemed surprised that I asked for that particular person.

"She is.", she replied.

"Orochimaru is grounds enough for a level 8 danger to Konoha. Seeing that you are likely to be a prime target, we could ask for an Anbu escort right?", I asked.

Jiraiya caught was I was talking about quickly and summoned Neko's team to Gate sixteen.

"Requesting Anbu cell escort. Danger level 8. A message to the Hokage to be delivered. Codename: Dragon.", Jiraiya ordered.

One of the Anbu disappeared in a Shunshin, probably to report to the Hokage. Neko just nodded her head and all of her team disappeared sans her. I knew that they'd taken strategic places around us where they could quickly come to help if something came up.

Neko and Kazumi helped Anko up and held her up. As we ambled slowly towards the hospital, people gave us nasty looks, I'm not talking civilians. Some of the ninja too, were doing the same. It wasn't helping things, that she gave as good as she got. If someone so much as so sneered at her, she flipped them the finger. Although they backed off, it wouldn't do anything to her already depreciating reputation. I was ashamed. Oh don't get me wrong, not of Anko. I was ashamed to call those people my comrades. But what made feel a bit better is the fact that, we were here for her. I threw my weight wherever people made it hard for us to move. The last scion of the mighty Uchiha clan was someone who wasn't to be messed with after all.

When we reached the hospital, things were a bit better. The nurses and doctors who probably knew of her condition came rushing to help. Soon, she had her own room, doctors taking care of her. After making sure that she was resting, I went upto Neko and thanked her.

"Just doing my duty is all.", came her robotic voice from inside the mask. "Do you still need the escort?"

"It would make me feel better if she had the protection.", I replied. "If you need us, just do this hand sign.", she said, rubbing the part of her mask where her nose would've been.

"Sure, Neko-san.", I replied. She vanished. I told Akira and Kazumi to wait in the hospital. I explained to them that I was going to check on Jiraiya and get some get well soon cards and flowers for Anko.

"Want anything to eat?", I asked, though it was little over an hour since we had lunch. The both of them shook their heads.

"I'll come along? Hospitals don't sit well with me.", Akira asked.

"You'll be fine alone?", I asked Kazumi. She nodded.

"Kay then Akira. Come along."

We first went to Jiraiya. The map was littered with red dots, with a smattering of yellow and green. I was relieved to find that Gaara's dot had already turned red. I chuckled at this, he would be very vulnerable, not to mention scared without his armor or his scary offence.

Sakura's was yellow, Naruto's and Sasuke's had already turned red.

" _Good head on the girl._ ", I thought smirking.

Of team six only Hinata's was red. It won't be much of a problem for them though. Kiba had his nose and Shino could communicate with his insects. Teams eight and nine were out of chakra. Team ten all had chakra, although Choji's was the lowest. Lots of fighting was going on though, if the rapid movements of most of the red dots meant anything.

I informed Jiraiya that Anko was safe and that the Anbu escort was still with her. He nodded at me and said that there was no immediate need for help and throwing a receiver at me, said that he would call us if anything happened.

I nodded and took my leave. It was kind of amusing to see Akira being flustered. He was usually the first to speak in any situation, but him being so _still_ in front of Jiraiya was a bit funny. After we'd left, we made a beeline for Yamanaka Flowers. As we'd entered the shop, I spotted Ino's mum, who welcomed me warmly.

I asked her for flowers and a card wishing that the person get well soon. As she set about gathering the things I asked for, I asked her, "Umm…. Mikino-san?"

"Yes, Daisuke?", she asked turning at me.

"I found a photo with my mother, Naruto's mum and you with a silver-haired guy. Could you tell me more about them?", I asked. She caught her breath. Her eyes teared up a little and she smiled.

"They were my bestest friends, although we knew jack about each other before Sakumo-sensei.", she chuckled. "Mikoto. The kind and understanding one. Kushina.", she outright laughed here. "The boisterous, outgoing, all-loving Kushina.", she sighed.

"You don't know how many nights I've spent, with those two in either Kushina's place or yours. Or the both of them in mine.", she reminisced. "We had the worst luck with missions though. Our first mission's report is redacted and classified as an S-class.", she laughed.

"We had pretty amazing ninja careers though. Sensei always picked the best missions for us. They were riddled with danger of course. That client from Sand….",she chuckled. "He took us to the land of springs on a simple escort mission. What we didn't know was that Spring was in a time of civil war at the time. It wasn't our client's fault though. He was a merchant, who was going to sell his wares to the king. Those were fun times though. Since Spring isn't a primarily a shinobi country, we came out relatively unscathed. He grossly overpaid us apologizing all the way and refusing to accept anything else."

She went on for another hour, talking about the previous team four. All that she had to say about her team was amazing. Naruto seemed like a Kushina xerox. They lost Sakumo first, which was well into their Chuunin careers, next obviously was Naruto's mom and then mine. At this point, she seemed close to breaking down. Akira was enraptured by the tales of his family's matriarch and was slack jawed by this time.

The door tinged breaking us out of our reverie. I knew then, where Ino got her strength and confidence from. Even though Mikino was so close to crying, she took a deep breath and re-arranged her countenance. She smiled at me.

"I have to apologise Daisuke-kun. Although I loved our talk, I have to return to the store. Although I am very late to ask of you this, please consider me a part of your family. If you have anything troubling you, you can always come to me. I am formally extending the protection of the Yamanaka family, council be damned."

This perked my interest. "I accept and what do you mean?", I asked.

"My husband and I were the first people to extend protection to both Naruto and you brothers to the council the times your parents died. Both of the times we were denied.", she said bitterly. "Something about not giving one clan too much power. I sent Ino once after y'know. But she said something about how all of the guys were already there and she was kicked out.", she chuckled. "I'm so very sorry Daisuke, for not taking any initial action, but now that you initiated the talk with me, I in the position of clan matriarch am able to do this."

"You don't need to apologize." I consoled. "Mikino-oba.", I added smiling. Her face lit up at this. She nodded, too overwhelmed to talk. She turned to talk to the new customer who had come. I suspect she was trying to hide the tears, which she obviously thought that I'd missed.

I went back to the hospital. Anko was still sleeping by the time I reached there. I placed the flowers and card on the desk next to hers, signed her minions. It seems that the Jonin within the village now knew about Orochimaru and Kurenai had come visiting.

"Daisuke's practically my brother!", Akira shouted at Kazumi. I whacked him at the back of his head and told him to announce things quietly, seeing as Anko stirred for a moment. I informed the nurse that I would be staying in the hospital overnight, in case Anko woke up. She told me coldly that only family are allowed to stay overnight and she for a fact knew that Anko didn't have any immediate family.

"Did you know that she's formally under the care of the Uchiha clan?", I asked, voice threatening. She paled at this.

"No, Uchiha-sama. Forgive my transgressions.", she apologized, trembling.

"it's fine if you didn't know. Apology accepted. Now do you have anything else to add?"

"No, Uchiha-sama. She's fine and can be discharged tomorrow."

I smiled astutely. "Thanks then."

As I went towards Anko's room, I sighed. She was going to raise a huge stink over this and probably kill me in the process. We stayed in her room, talking away the time. We were in the middle of a very interesting topic when Akira's stomach rumbled. He looked at us sheepishly.

"Dinner?", I offered amused. He nodded enthusiastically. I looked at Kazumi. She nodded too.

We went out to a discrete location near the hospital and I rubbed my nose. Neko appeared in front of me that instant.

"We're going out for dinner.", I told her. Then something occurred to me. "Talking about dinner, shouldn't you guys be heading out for dinner too? It's been about six hours since we called the escort after all.", I asked.

"It's our job and duty to protect the citizens of Konoha unseen. Until we are relieved of duty, we don't think of our bodily needs.", she replied. I was horrified.

"I'm so sorry Neko-san, I'll-"

"By relieving of duty I meant when the next team comes.", she cut me off. "You don't need to worry about us."

I looked at her, unsure. She just nodded, as if reassuring me.

"If there's nothing else Daisuke-san?", she asked. I shook my head. She nodded once more and vanished. We went for dinner, but I still felt a bit queasy about what I'd learned of the Anbu today.

" _I'm never joining.",_ I promised myself. After dinner got over, we first headed to the base of operations, where Jiraiya said that nothing significant to report had happened. I figured that most of them must've been tired by then and all of the dots, except Shikamaru's I noted proudly, were red.

Jiraiya informed us that he'd be taking over the night shift and the day shift the next day. I asked him not to be an idiot and take some rest the next morning as Anko was most likely to be discharged by then and that Team twelve were more than capable of handling emergencies not of the Orochimaru kind.

"I didn't know that.", he grumbled. "You don't have to be so blunt with words.", he added looking at me. I looked at him sheepishly, rubbing the back of my head. He laughed at me.

"Nah kid. You know I'm kidding.", he grinned at me.

"Hang on to that receiver I gave you all. I'll call if something comes up.", he informed us. We nodded. "Now get some sleep runts." , he waved us goodbye, smiling.

I nodded at him. "Have you had dinner?", I asked.

"Yes. I had a Chuunin come and give me some takeaway."

"Goodnight then."

We left and headed first for Kazumi's place, seeing that it was closer. Dropping her at home, we headed to my home next. I grabbed my toothbrush and paste; and headed out. Next was Akira's place. Tsugumi-san wouldn't let me leave without having something to eat. I told her to make a simple sandwich and nothing more, since I was already stuffed. His dad was amazing. He was Inoichi's cousin once removed.

The guy was practically an Akira Sr. Easily excitable, very outgoing and kind. He insisted that I should stay at his place when Akira said that I'd be alone for tonight.

"No, that's alright Arima-san.", I have to keep Anko-sensei company. Akira's face went weird at that.

"It feels funny calling her sensei.", he told me.

"Isn't it?", I laughed. "Anyways, ciao Akira. I'll come over sometime for a sleepover, Arima-san.", I said to his father's worried face. He smiled at me.

"I'll take you up on that, Daisuke-kun."

I nodded and waved goodbye. I took a look at the time. It had been almost two hours since I left the hospital. I went back as fast as possible. When I reached the room, I found that she was already awake and that someone was already inside.

"Hi, Kurenai-sensei and….", my eyes widened here. "Ne-"

"I'd prefer the name Yugao, if you don't mind.", she cut me off looking stern. Anko chuckled here.

"Told ya that he'd find out.", she grinned at me.

"How did you even?! We can't be the only purple haired people in Konoha.", Yugao asked pointing at herself and Anko, looking at me stern. I rolled my eyes.

"Granted there are a lot of purple-heads. No one can carry that posture like you though, Yugao-san.", I chuckled. "Even now you're sitting ram-rod straight. And did you really think I wouldn't recognize the chakra of the person who first came to help the night my clan was massacred?", I asked. Her eyes widened at this. "I'm not a sensor.", I continued. "But that night stands out like a sheep inside a pack of wolves for me and I haven't forgotten one detail of that night."

Her eyes softened here.

"It is a very highly guarded secret though, since I'm an Anbu captain. Please keep it to yourself.", she Asked of me. I just nodded my head.

"Umm… Anko I need to tell you something.", I meeped out. Kurenai and Yugao were about to leave, but turned back looking at me curiously, by my tone of voice.

"No, no! Stay! I want witnesses if she kills me after I've finished!", I exclaimed, genuinely scared. Those two had the gall to look amused.

"What have you done?!", Anko thundered from behind them. I peeked out from behind Yugao.

"I didn't like the way the others treated you. So….", I trailed off looking at the increasing amount of irritation on her face.

"So what, minion?", she growled.

"soitoldtheheadnursethatyouwereformallyunderuchihacare.", I blurted out very fast. Kurenai gasped, Yugao looked at me shocked and tried to say something.

"Didn't catch that last part!", she barked. "Will you two please keep quiet!", she snarked to her friends growling.

It became deathly quiet. "Thank you. Now continue Daisuke."

I gulped. "I told the head nurse that you were formally under Uchiha care.", I reiterated, slowly chagrin in my voice.

Her face was murderous. "Whom did you ask before telling people that?"

"No one.", I meekly replied.

"So, you took this decision on your own?", she asked. I nodded.

"Did it not occur to you that I might not want to be as you put it 'under the Uchiha's care'?".

"It did.", I replied. But before I could continue, she held her hand out front. "Stop. Right. There. You knew even if not outright, but even if a little, even then you knew that I might not like it and you went ahead with it anyway.", she growled. I stood there, feeling very small.

"Anko-", Kurenai began.

"Shut it.", she snapped at her. I flinched. "I'm done here.", she finished getting up from her bed. "And Daisuke." I flinched again. "From here on you are supposed to address me only as Mitarashi-sensei and _nothing else._ Got it?!"

I nodded, feeling miserable. She stormed out of the room. I could feel someone's hand on my shoulder. I realized that it was Yugao. She smiled at me.

"Don't worry about her Daisuke. She's a big baby. And already missing you inside.", she consoled.

"I AM NOT!", Anko screamed from the door.

Kurenai chuckled. "She'll be calling you minion in no time."

"I WILL NOT!", came the same voice.

"Fine, ya big baby. Don't!", Kurenai admonished from near me.

They left the room with me feeling pretty horrible about myself. I walked up to the compound feeling quite sorry with myself. As I went up to the house, Zabuza asked, "Hey runt. How was the exam?"

"Fine", I replied.

"Any problems?"

I snorted at this. "Orochimaru appeared. I know not what for, but have a faint idea."

He looked at me critically. "Any problems _with you?_ "

"That obvious, huh?", I chuckled. "I betrayed the trust of a friend and now she's really mad and doesn't want to do anything with me."

"Girl problems, huh?", Ameyuri and Haku came up behind us. "I try and avoid them all the time.", she continued. I snorted and laughed.

"Girls or problems?", I asked.

"Both.", she replied smiling. Haku blushed next to her. I noticed this and filed it away for later. I laughed again.

I asked them if they'd had dinner. They replied that they had. Bidding goodbye to them, I went inside my home. Now that nobody was inside and in light of recent events, it felt really lonely in here.

" _I just wanted to help dammit!",_ I shouted inside my head. When I lay down to sleep, it was with a lot of trepidation and shame. I would make it up to her, I decided. Of course, only if she allowed me to, that is.

 **-O_O-**

 **A few hours before, with Orochimaru**

To say Orochimaru was pissed off was akin to saying that people were just uncomfortable with cockroaches. He was severely pissed off. His carefully articulated plan was now in shambles. It was a surreal experience for him. In fact, he'd felt a fear he hadn't faced since his days as a Chuunin and facing Hanzo.

The moment he realized that he was able to summon only a small snake and that too a harmless, poisonless garden snake, he knew that sealing was involved and it scared him because it was the one shinobi art that he was _pants_ in.

He understood summoning, since he had ample time to observe it and it's workings thanks to Manda and his curse seal was something of a project that he and that insufferable kyuubi brat had worked on for extracting information from prisoners. When she realized how he'd perverted the original when she consulted Anko, she coldly refused to help him and that if he came near her, she'd sick the Kyuubi on him and that had been that.

The _improvements_ he'd managed to apply to the seal was a meticulous usage of trial and error, but even then the application of the seal drained too much chakra out of him and it gave the subject only a ten percent chance at survival. The coffin test was to be done only after the subject and the seal were fully assimilated.

No, his plans had to be revised. The Kazekage he would need alive for if he were to go with his plan he needed all the confusion he could muster before kidnapping one of those infernal Uchiha boys. The old monkey was supposed to be a bonus. The Uchiha eyes were his first priority. Perhaps access to those eyes could give him the clarity he required to understand seals. If not them then the Hyuuga, he shrugged. And so musing and planning, he was left in his room alone by his terrified servants.

 **-O_O-**

The next day when we reported for work, Akira and Kazumi realized that _something_ had happened between Anko and I, since she addressed me only by my name and I replied in mono-syllabic words and called her Mitarashi-sensei, but they had the common sense not to ask about it to her.

Nothing untoward happened that day. I noted that after the first day's debacle, where everyone was losing chakra fast, today nothing much was happening in terms of chakra usage. It was a smattering of yellow and green on the map. Sasuke and team were all green and surprisingly heading towards the tower.

As I'd expected, Gaara and team were able to reach the tower early that morning and no other team had made it yet. Anko was being purposefully spiteful. If anything was to be done at the tower, she'd send one of the reserve Chuunin or Kazumi or Akira and never me.

She avoided eye contact with me all day and any attempt to begin a conversation would bring out her famous rusty kunai. I'd resigned myself to being treated like this and felt miserable. It went on like this, even up till when Jiraiya came and took over the evening shift. By then, Jiraiya too had noticed, but didn't say anything.

As we left the building, without so much as a glance towards me, shunshinned away. Seeing as no one would have returned to the compound, I went back in. I looked towards the map. Team seven were having trouble from Orochimaru's cronies. From the looks of it, they were beating them up quite bad. Seeing this I chuckled. With Naruto's Buroura no ken and Sasuke's Interceptor style and their impeccable fighting style, nobody had a ghost of a chance. In exactly thirteen minutes, the older team were tied up, if the back to back to back directions of the foots of team Dosu were any indication.

After a few minutes, they went towards the middle of the ground, where Iruka's name appeared and then entered the tower. I let out a huge sigh I was holding in.

"Go see them, kid. I can see that you've had a rough day.", Jiraiya told me, giving me an exam pass. I looked at him gratefully, accepted the pass and went towards the tower.

Entering the tower, I signed in and made a beeline for the lounge. Kakashi was praising his team and said that they'd tried their best and that the minimum time was four hours anyway. I called for them. They turned looking at me surprised.

I went upto them and pulled everyone into a hug. Sakura meeped. Kakashi was trying to get away, but not too much. As we pulled out of the hug Sakura was blushing madly, Naruto and Sasuke were heaving for breath and Kakashi was trying to eye-crinkle, but it wasn't coming out properly.

"Warn us next time ne, Daisuke-kun?", he quaked uncertainly.

"So that you have ample warning and will get out of it? No chance.", I replied.

"How come you're here?", Sasuke asked.

"Part organizer.", I replied to him grinning.

"And you never thought to tell us?!", he asked. "I'm your brother!", he sniffed.

"Where would be the fun in that?", I asked. "And one more thing.", I added trying to grin evilly. "It was me who came up with the chakra limiter idea."

Team seven's face turned very, very scary. They had nothing on my mother though. I sniffed it off.

"That was you Daisuke?", Kakashi asked. "Very impressive seal. From what I hear it was very effective in -ah- extenuating circumstances."

I beamed at his praise.

"Only the initial idea was mine. Jiraiya was the one who applied the seal.", I responded rubbing at the back of my head and grinning.

"Praise should be there where it is deserved Daisuke.", Kakashi eye-crinkled at me.

"Thank you Kakashi sensei. How's your ear? Recovered yet?", I asked.

"Meh. I've gotten used to it.", he replied.

We small talked for sometime, when I heard a small disturbance coming from the refreshments area. Someone had dropped a bucket of empty ice cream and was making quite the ruckus. It was the Sand team. My eyes widened. It's not like never seen the lot of them before, but I have no other way to describe them.

Gaara looked like a cute teddy bear gone bad. Kankuro looked every bit as badass as I remembered him to be and Temari was _hot. Inadvertently,_ my eyes trailed down and laid rest a little ways above her hip. Not that I'm into fifteen year olds or anything, but she's the first person who wasn't my mom or Ayame and close to my age who had _definition_ to their selves. Ameyuri is plain creepy, don't even go there.

Before I could get caught staring at her girls, I went up to them and asked, "Is there any problem?". They turned towards me, Gaara scowling pretty bad. " I am part of the organizing team, so any grievance you have you can tell me.", I smiled at them. Temari looked at me, then at Sasuke, then at me again. Her face turned a little pink.

"Er-hem", Kankuro voiced from behind her.

"Ah, yeah.", she began. "You've seemed to run out of our little brother's favorite flavor of ice-cream. Believe me when I say that you do NOT want him cranky.", she shuddered.

"I understand-", I began. "I doubt that you do.", Kankuro muttered from behind.

"As I was saying", I glared at him. "I understand, having had to raise an idiot of a brother. So I know a little of tantrums, thank you very much.", I admonished them. They were looking properly ashamed and even Gaara was looking away from me.

"What flavor?", I asked, turning towards him. "Chocolate.", he replied. I turned around.

"Mother says that you're a special.", he whispered out quietly. I turned at the spot. Kankuro and Temari were white with fear.

"I'm sorry?", I asked.

"Mother says that you're a special. That your rain of blood would strengthen me a lot.", he whispered in that same tone. He then looked at me with a mad gleam in his eye, which could've been fear or excitement. I was beginning to feel a taad uncomfortable here.

"But, she says that your blood is too precious to spill and that if I touched you, she would eat my puny mind.", he continued in the same monotone. I looked at his eyes somewhat comforted and disturbed that the craziest bijuu wanted me safe.

"Please tell no one of this.", I beseeched. He nodded.

"My siblings won't tell anyone. If they do I will kill them.", he responded. They turned even whiter.

"No need to go to such lengths umm?", I looked at him.

"Gaara.", he offered.

"Yes. No need to go to such lengths Gaara. I'm sure they won't tell anyone if you just ask them nicely. They are your family after all.", I smiled at them. Temari and Kankuro were still looking at him and me uncertainly. I then took my leave and said that I'd return by a half-hour max and they could wait in the lounge if they wanted or leave to their rooms and come back later.

Turning around and going towards Team seven, I let out a huge sigh of relief. If anyone knew that I was different, it would make life here extremely tough for me.

Kakashi had left by the time and Naruto had piled a lot of food onto his plate and was eating, while Sasuke had a huge bowl of tomatoes. Sakura had a salad.

"Yo Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura. I have to go out for a bit. I'm sure you guys must be exhausted. Have a small walk within the tower's compound after eating and go rest okay? Sasuke make sure you have some curd. All that acid from the tomato has to be neutralized somehow."

"Hmm/Okay/You've told me this a thousand times Daisuke.", came replies from them.

"Alright then."

I had to endure 10 km of The Forest of Death before I could go outside. I sighed at that prospect.

Getting a huge bucket of chocolate ice cream at the nearest store and returning took exactly twenty three minutes. When I entered the lounge, I was amused to find that Gaara was waiting for the ice cream. I chuckled and put the bucket into the freezing area, where he approached eagerly. Taking a huge bowl, he scooped out six spoonfuls and sat down to eat. If anyone had looked at him then, no one could've deduced that this was the crazed killer who held the Ichibi.

I went back to the base of operations, where I reported to Jiraiya that we needed to keep an eye on the stock of chocolate ice cream. He looked at me owlishly. "The sand nin Gaara has a particular liking for them.", I clarified for him.

Understanding passed through his face and he laughed outright. "Alright kid. I'll ask someone to keep an eye on the ice creams."

It was still too early to head back home, so I wandered about in Konoha. As I wandered about, I saw how peaceful Konoha actually was. Kids playing about on the streets, no distinction between ninja and civilian. Everyone was going about their own business true, but if anyone dropped something or if an elderly person needed help, there was an abundance of people to go help. Only none of them wanted to help Naruto, with Teuchi and Ayame being the _only_ exceptions. I scowled at this. Banishing those thoughts from my head, I went on. Without my knowing it, I wandered aimlessly and reached the base of the Hokage monument. I shrugged my shoulders and climbed up to the viewing platform. It was quite some time that I'd been here. It must've been the height or something, cause the air up here was really cool. I took a deep breath and released it. I could see why Naruto _literally_ loved hanging here. It was beautiful and scenic.

I sat there mulling over my thoughts, until it turned quite dark. By the time I went back to the compound, the mist trio's house lights were already out. Not wanting to disturb them, I just went in directly to my bed and dropped off to sleep.

 **-O_O-**

I'd forgotten to set my alarm. So, I woke up to the sun's rays nudging me awake. I got up abruptly and looked at the time.

" _Crap. It's already past half-hour!_ ", I thought panicked. I brought a bottle, some paste, a tooth-brush and my first seal. Just taking a new set of clothes, I dashed out of the house. I noticed that Jiraiya hadn't come back yet. I was banking on his support as I probably would be torn to shreds, considering Anko's recent bahaviour. I'd brushed my teeth along the way and stored the items in the seal. Trembling, I entered the building. Standing there in the entrance lobby, was Anko, visibly pissed.

"Um, Mitarashi-sensei. I'm sor-", was all I could say before I was cut off.

"Who gave you permission to enter my tower?!", she thundered at me. I was put off by that.

" _She's being very immature about this."_ I thought irritatingly.

"You had no right to get in there without my permission! What havoc did you wreak last night without me knowing?", she kept shouting. I was really pissed off right now.

"JIRAIYA!", I snapped back. She stopped just a moment just to look shocked. "It was Jiraiya who gave me permission! And whatever I did, it was to protect you, you foolish woman! I have had enough of this reaction from you! I know in my heart that I don't deserve it!", so yelling, I ran out of the place slamming the door behind me.

" _Daisuke is NOT reporting for duty today._ ", I thought to myself storming out of the street. " _Oh, shit!",_ my mind allowed when it registered who the person grinning evilly at me was.

 **-O_O-**

 **With Jiraiya**

When Anko came into the map room, slamming the door shut behind her with a murderous stare directed at me, I knew that I was in trouble. I shrugged it off, ignoring her. This seemed to infuriate her even more. I continued to keep quiet. She seemed quiet for a few minutes.

"Who gave you the authority to give out exam passes?", she asked, voice dangerously low.

"The Hokage, mine. Take your pick.", I replied.

"Excuse me? What authority did you have in the first place?", she asked.

I was offended by this. "Do you not remember me applying a seal to the training ground, just a few days back?", I asked, some anger leaking into my voice. She looked appropriately chagrined.

"Look here Anko. I don't know what it is that he did to offend you so, but what you're doing now is not good.", I advised. "He's a good kid. I don't think he would've done anything purposefully malicious to you. It's killing him, the silent treatment you're giving him."

She bristled at this. "You don't butt in here-"

The flags that I'd set on the map, after the debacle of the first day, for any wanted criminal in Konoha went off, giving out a sound and the name flashing. Anko's face widened. Guessing as to who it might be, I turned to the map. I immediately clenched my jaws not expecting another name.

" _Good brain on the kid._ ", I thought chuckling.

 **-O_O-**

 **With Anko**

I was angry at what Jiraiya said. He had no frikkin say in this. It was my and his problem.

" _And whatever I did, it was to protect you, you foolish woman!_ ", his voice raged in my head. "You don't butt in here-", I began, when the map started going bonkers behind him. I took a look at it and I went still. For following the name "Daisuke Uchiha" in the outskirts of the training ground was "Orochimaru (KB)". I internally screamed inside.

" _Fancy Eyes!",_ I thought frantically. Next to me Jiraiya was chuckling.

"How can you be laughing at a time like this?! He's going after my minion!", I yelled/asked him.

"Sharp mind that kid's got.", he retorted leaving his Shunshin leaves behind. I literally screamed then.

 **A/N:** Big shout to my readers and reviewers :D **.** Sooo, what plans does Orochi-pedo have? :] On another note, I've done a play on words in this chapter. See if you can find it. As always R&R peeps. Toodles :]


	13. Chapter 13

**Previously:** The Chuunin Exams begin. Orochimaru is unable to place the seal on Sasuke thanks to Jiraiya's seal. Ino's mom informs Daisuke of the council's unwillingness to actually help Daisuke, Sasuke and Naruto. Daisuke and Anko get into a huge fight. Orochimaru sets his sights on Daisuke.

 **Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto, Kishi does. But, Daisuke, Kazumi and Akira are mine though.

 **[-O_O-]**

" _Daisuke is NOT reporting for duty today._ ", I thought to myself storming out into the street. " _Oh, shit!",_ my mind allowed when it registered who the person grinning evilly at me was.

Orochimaru looked sinister. Not the best way to describe him I know, but that's what popped up the moment I laid eyes on him.

" _Would be really nice if Jiraiya were here now!",_ I thought frantically. " _Of course why not?!",_ I facepamled in my head. Without thinking anything else, I applied chakra to my legs and _ran._ I peeped back and saw Orochimaru following me.

" _Good.",_ I thought to myself. But then something happened that made my blood run cold. He phased into the ground. Without thinking of anything, I jumped. Not too soon too. Just after I'd jumped, a bony hand came out of the place to grab air, where my foot would have been if I hadn't jumped.

I then Shunshinned towards the training ground. As I reached, Orochimaru did too. Grinning madly, he rushed towards me, dangerous looking sword in hand.

" _Duck!",_ I thought frantically. But before anything could happen, a loud resounding _clang!_ was what I heard.

Before I could even begin to comprehend what was happening, more sounds resembling metal striking metal came. I opened my eyes and saw that Neko was facing what Orochimaru had to offer. On her own. She was fully on the defensive, considering that I was the one she was protecting and right behind her. Without thinking any further, I joined in. Not that I could do much mind you, just the **_Chakra Projectile_** that would home onto him while I launched it allowing space for Neko to go on the offensive. She glanced back and nodded in my direction, which was all the acceptance I needed.

I launched three more I quick succession, one of which definitely hit. Neko was continuously proving that her status as an Anbu captain was well earned. Orochimaru was being pushed back. Not what I expected from an S-class nin.

" _Then again, his body doesn't allow him to fight anymore than the current level, probably.",_ I thought to myself.

I was wondering where the rest of her team was when something huge and overbearing appeared right next to me. I'd expected his summon to follow and jumped high.

" _Dammit! Where is her team?!",_ I wondered looking around. I realized that my caution was un-founded as I saw Jiraiya looking grimly at the fight that had abruptly stopped when the both of them realized who had come.

I landed safely and on my feet, or so I thought. For definitely, my legs met the ground sooner that I thought and I was in a sitting position. Also, there was a body groaning underneath me. Something about killing jumpy minions. I realized who it was and jumped away in fear. Only for Newton's third law to come into effect and push her into the ground even more. I cringed at this.

While all this was happening, Jiraiya never let his gaze off of Orochimaru.

"Whaddaya want?!", he thundered.

"Oh you know. Jutsu of the world. Immortality. The works. A pair of Sharingan to help.", he shrugged grinning at me.

"You'll never get near them while I'm alive Orochimaru!", Jiraiya retorted.

"You won't be safe always you now brat!", Orochimaru informed looking directly at me. "Sometime, you will have to lower your guard, with no one else to look at your back. I'll get you or your brother then."

My eyes widened. " _The invasion!",_ I thought.

Misconstruing the look on my face for fear, he continued. "Yes. That is it. Show me your fears little boy. I'll guarantee that I'm even worse than all of them combined. Or perhaps I'll take your little brother? Anyway, I'll have those coveted eyes. The amazing and awesome power that is the Sharingan."

I got immensely angry at this. I was blinded by my anger. I was going to get him exactly where it hurt the bastard.

" _But not now.",_ the rational part of my mind reasoned. " _A lot is at stake here. You do NOT want Orochimaru to know what exactly you are. Or even that you're different. Wait. Get someone to help. Probably the Hokage or Jiraiya."_

This helped calm me down a bit. I actually started grinning. Then chuckling. Then, moving to full blown out laughter a few seconds later. This had everyone assembled looking at me in shock.

"Oh do continue.", I addressed Orochimaru between laughs. "I want to see what more monologuing you are capable of."

Everyone present, even my ground facing teacher probably thought that I was going mad. His face though transitioned from shock to fury and began ranting about how I had to leave the village at least once on missions and that he had spies within the village. This took my laughter octave a few more notches. He looked even more incredulous.

 **-With Jiraiya-**

" _I am waaaay outta my depth here_.", I thought to myself in shock, looking at the probable mental breakdown that was happening in front of me.

" _Thing is, it's having a profound effect on Orochimaru too._ ", I turned to look at him. He was looking like he was about to shit his pants. This made me want to laugh too. And then, just to mess with the fucker, I did.

It paid very rich dividends. He now looked like he wanted to cry. Spouting some bull about getting back at us later, he did that ground-phasing thing he was famous for. I looked around, to shocked looks coming all round, other than Daisuke, who was still heavily chuckling.

"Whaaat? He started it.", I said pointing to Daisuke.

 **-With Daisuke-**

"Whaaat? He started it.", Jiraiya accused pointing to me.

"I may have.", I grinned at him cheekily. "But, you completed it."

I turned serious. I needed some way of getting Kabuto out before anything bad happened. Jiraiya had bent down and was now probably wondering what to do with a face injured Anko.

"Jiraiya.", I called.

He turned and looked at me.

"Sasuke and I are twins. No one but Naruto knows that he's younger than me and now you all do. He may be a knucklehead, but he doesn't spout out anything about us. He's very possessive about any information pertaining to us. Perhaps the head doctor, who delivered us back then knows, but no one else. Not even Shika. This marks and points to a traitor, in some way, related to the hospital.", I reasoned. He looked at me critically.

"I'll have someone look into it.", he replied and then grabbed Anko's still ground facing body, slung her over his shoulder and nodded at Neko. I turned to her.

"Neko-san.", I began. And it was all I would say. She held up her hand. "Just doing my duty is all Daisuke-sama."

"Where's your team anyway?", I asked.

"That's classified information.", she replied.

I shook my head incredulously.

" _Yep. Neever joining."_ , I thought to myself.

I nodded at her gratefully. She vanished and then I looked at Jiraiya.

"To the hospital?", I asked sniggering.

"I can hear ya, Daisuke!",, Anko shouted from Jiraiya's shoulder.

"Duly noted Mitarashi-sensei.", I replied to the ass pointing at me.

"Grab onto my hand runt.", Jiraiya ordered. I obeyed without question.

One Shunshin to the hospital later, Jiraiya quickly went to work. Flirting with one of the nurses that is. I facepalmed. I went through the procedure to get Anko a room. " _Second time in as many days,"_ I giggled to myself.

"I know that giggle anywhere. You're thinking of something perverted aren't you?", came Anko's accusing voice from behind the screen, where the doctor was taking a look at the damaged nose and back.

"N-no I wasn't!", I exclaimed from where I was. _She_ then started sniggering from behind the curtain. Then quietened down abruptly. Perhaps she remembered that she was supposed to be angry with me or whatever.

Anyways, like I'd told her this morning, I know that I don't deserve the treatment that she'd been dishing out. And as always with situations like these, the awkwardness level was going up, up and away. So to diffuse this, I knew that I'd have to leave.

"Alright sensei. I'm going back to BO. Come as soon as possible. Jiraiya has been up since yesterday. We need to relieve him of duty soon. Later.", I waved at the screen and walked out of the room. Not to say that I wasn't affected by this. It still irritated me to no end that she was being so immature about it. Jiraiya was still flirting with the cute nurse when I got to the main entrance. I shook my head and rolled my eyes at this.

"Jiraiya. Get back home and get some rest!", I shouted at him. The whole place became deathly quiet and staring at me, some with mouths wide open. He just sulked and walked out of the hospital entrance. This made even more jaws drop.

"What's with you lot?!". I snarled. Everyone promptly went back to what they were doing. I accompanied Jiraiya home, just to make sure that he did go there. After making sure that he was indeed resting, I didn't know what to do. I certainly didn't want a repeat of the situation in the hospital. So I figured that I'd drop in on the Mist trio. It was almost time for lunch too, so I thought I'd go help with whatever they were making and have a nice chat.

As I neared their house, I could hear the unmistakable _clang! clang!_ that swords made when made to cross each other. When I reached their home, I was astounded. It was the first time that I actually had entered here and I found the décor to be _beautiful_.

I went on to the backyard, where the training sounds now included shouts from both Ameyuri and Zabuza. Only to find myself surrounded by huge amounts of mist and yet they were still _somehow_ fighting. It was amazing to see -err- hear what they were capable of and scared me a bit. I did _not_ want these people as my enemy.

I rightly guessed that Haku too was in there somewhere, since I could catch glimpses of his ice mirrors when they reflected light. I waited patiently for them to finish. In the meanwhile, I'd sat down Indian style, focusing on my breathing. This too was a type of training, although primarily used by wind natured chakra people. Nins with fire natured chakra could use this exercise to increase the intensity of burning of their attacks.

I used it mainly to calm myself down since I was still especially irritated with the whole Anko situation. Once I had calmed myself down enough I opened my eyes, everyone was curiously looking at me. Really closely. I wouldn't have minded this and would have had some sort of comeback if it were either Naruto or Sasuke. But the present company were plain creepy. Bar Haku of course.

It startled me for a moment and I instinctively backpedalled. Which made me land head first, legs in the air. I guess that they weren't too used to seeing a trained nin react like that, if the guffawing coming from their direction was any indication.

I got up in quite a huff. "Nice acrobatics there Daisuke.", Zabuza laughed.

"I'm sure it was better than when I first met you.", I retorted. That particular memory playing in his head stopped him pretty much right then. He then proceeded to turn to a corner to sulk. Apparently Haku was the one amongst them who could bring Zabuza down from that funk.

So Ameyuri came sauntering over to me, still grinning. "Yo! Whatcha doin' midget?", she asked.

"Well", I began. "Its been quite a long time since we sat together, so I thought we'd have lunch today."

"I don't see why not.", she replied grinning. "Thanks to your Hokage's monthly wage thing, we're actually pretty much within our needs."

"What she means is lunch here or a restaurant?", Haku asked from behind.

"Here.", I replied.

"Don't you have that exam?", Zabuza asked slightly being rude.

"Oh you don't want me here?", I sniffed.

"Humph. I can imagine ten other places you could be in and one of them is not here.", he grunted back. Ameyuri whapped him on the back of his head.

"Stop being rude Zabuza.", she chided him. "If it wasn't for him you'd be having a hole the size of a fist in you."

With that settled, Haku and I went about preparing lunch. He had this small habit of eating the ingredients while preparing. I wanted to ask him something that had been bothering me since yesterday.

"You like Ameyuri don't you?", I queried. He spat out the flour he had in his mouth. This obviously got Zabuza and Ameyuri's attention.

"Anything happen?", Zabuza asked. Judging by Haku's reaction, I knew that it was something he didn't want known to anyone.

"No, no. Just a lot of intake of flour is all.", I replied smiling.

"What gave you that idea?!", he hissed at me whispering. I smirked.

"You blush when she smiles. I first noticed it yesterday. You even did it now.", I grinned at him. "I may be four to five years younger than you. Doesn't mean that I don't notice things."

Telling him this, I went back to preparing food. We were quietly preparing food for a while. In the meanwhile, Zabuza and Ameyuri were conversing behind us.

"What do you intend to do with this information?", Haku asked suddenly, in the process of making broth. This threw me off for a bit.

"Nothing.", I replied grinning. "Although, I will blurt it out loud if you're being too indecisive."

He sputtered at that. "Just kidding man. Take a joke!", I exclaimed

Once we all sat down for lunch and he knew that I wasn't actually going to do anything, he seemed to relax. Active conversation was going all round the table and it was a really nice atmosphere. After lunch before I left, I collected some food for Jiraiya bade farewell to them and went back home.

I went home and quietly placed the food on the table and a short note saying what was in the bag. After doing so, I left the house. Now I really had to leave for Base of Operations, since I had nothing else to do. Aaand Akira would probably feel a little betrayed if I weren't the one to tell him that I laughed at Orochimaru's face.

Sighing to myself I set off to BO. On reaching, I directly went to the map room. Akira and Kazumi were currently manning operations there and Anko's dots I could see were in front of the tower. I was pretty touched to find out that Akira and Kazumi both didn't like the 'Anko situation', as I now called it, and wanted to help diffuse the tension in anyway possible.

"The only one capable of stopping this is her guys. I'm not sure what to do at the moment.", I told to disappointed looks. "But remember this. You guys are my team. I would lay down my life before I let anything happen to you three in my presence.", I smiled at them.

The mood still remained melancholy though, so to cheer them up I told them about my first meet with the Sand nin. Every detail, from when Jiraiya gave me the exam pass until the ice cream, bar when Gaara called me a 'special', I retold. There were smiles all round after I completed my story.

 **-With Anko-**

After that annoying ,groveling doctor healed me fully and cleared me to go I headed straight to BO. I wanted to apologise to Daisuke. Only, I didn't find him there. The ones manning BO right now were my other minions and Genma, who did his salute wave thing.

"Where's Daisuke?!"

I cringed a bit inside. I hadn't wanted to sound so severe. I sighed at the looks my minions sent me and asked Genma to accompany me to The Tower. He complied and off we went. Reaching there I found everything to be in order.

The residing Chuunin informed me that everything was going well and that Daisuke actually helped with affairs the previous night. This actually had me feeling extremely guilty for my outburst at him today morning.

There was only one thing to do at a time like this. Binge eating. " _It's close to lunch anyway._ ", I thought to myself shrugging.

And thus, began my hour long tryst with food, while Genma did all of the work inside. Maintaining records wasn't my area of expertise anyway. After we were done and I'd had a look over. Liking what I saw, I promised Genma that the Hokage would know about his team's good work and everyone involved could definitely expect a bonus. He grinned at me for that.

I waited for him to finish lunch and then we headed back to BO. Before entering the map room, I heard laughter coming from within.

"But I had to get a whole bucket! How could you even begin to justify that?!". Daisuke exclaimed. Akira was chuckling.

"It was just ice-cream Daisuke.", Kazumi chided. "We've been training in there for months now. You shouldn't be snarking like this. Poor kid was missing his home I bet."

I stopped abruptly. It had been three days since I'd listened to them interacting like this. This was what Konoha was all about. I missed out on this experience, when my bastard of a teacher had sought and singled me out. Besides, after Daisuke did that heartwarmingly wonderful thing for her, people had actually made efforts to stay out of her way and not say anything to her face. Some actually were running away from her to Anko's amusement.

" _No.",_ I decided. " _I am not going to ruin this for anything. I know that I'm in the wrong, why is it so hard to apologise?"_

Shoving these thoughts down I entered the room. All talk abruptly stopped and they looked at me, Daisuke with a little bit of apprehension.

"You don't need to so guarded minion.", I dictated. His face turned from one of apprehension to shock. "What you did for me was very well thought out and heartfelt. In my pride, I didn't see it for what it actually was. Help. Instead my stupid mind construed this to be pity and I almost lost a friend because of it. Please forgive me, I want my competent minion team back. Especially the one that had big diamond ones to laugh at Orochimaru in the face." I apologized.

 **-With Daisuke-**

This was clearly an apology. And the reversal from Daisuke to minion too was shocking. I didn't know what to do then. Did I mention that I was shocked? I mentally shook myself.

"Anko, there's nothing to forgive. But, since this is a chance of a lifetime. I accept.", I replied grinning. Anko seemed surprised at the cheek, then smiled.

"Don't push it minion."

"Daisuke.", Akira called me. I turned to face him. Kazumi was blushing yet, looking at me in awe.

"Two things, What's big diamond ones mean? Secondly, you laughed at Orochimaru's _face_?!", he shrieked/asked.

"Ah.", was all I could respond.

" _I promised myself that I'd tell him about it.",_ I mentally kicked myself. And then my brain seemed to register the _other_ thing he'd asked. My traitorous blush came full force. Genma-san and Anko were laughing their heads out. Kazumi and I were blushing, while Akira looked nonplussed.

"Err. I'll explain the first part to you later on and yes I laughed at Orochimaru in the face. Jiraiya being there helped. Not to mention Anko and Neko too.", I replied.

I turned and looked back at the map. The way things were turning out, I was expecting a battle royale tomorrow afternoon. Only two teams managed to enter the tower, so theoretically, six more could enter. Teams eight, nine and ten were now sticking together.

" _That will be one helluva team to beat_.", I thought to myself. Even without Gaara, there were some killings. The Waterfall team were sure to be disqualified, since the rain team killed one of them. The sole other sand team were just waiting for the test to finish I think. They'd boxed themselves in the middle of a hilly region and probably hiding.

I turned my sights back to the Konoha team. Two sets of Byakugan, two pheromone trackers, one who could track with the help of shadows with an IQ of 210, one mind attacker, one human tank, a weapons mistress and a Taijutsu master who is holding _a lot_ back. I pitied the poor team that were to cross them or if they crossed an enemy team. If no one came to them, they would go to others. One way or the other, that whole contingent was surely getting in.

Nothing much went about that evening. Just the Chuunin in the towers cycling and Genma being replaced by Raido. By the time Jiraiya reported for duty, one more team got in. He thanked me for the food and was delighted that Anko and I had made up.

Team twelve signed out of BO and Anko suggested that we eat out. Her treat. We went to Yakino Q where we gorged ourselves with their mouth watering varieties of meat they had to offer. After we'd finished eating and the bill came, Anko started rubbing the back of her head in embarrassment.

"I -uh- kinda need another five thousand ryo.", she said, face looking sheepish. I laughed heartily, Akira too. Kazumi had a small smirk on her face.

Each of us gave her two thousand ryo. After paying the bill, we still talked for a while, Anko informing us that training will continue as planned after the second test was over. We got excited over this. Thankfully, we weren't lacking for jutsu, no. But what we wanted was something more. Akira wanted to see a live demonstration of an interrogation taking place, Kazumi wanted Anko to teach her how to handle kunai like she did. Me. The first thing I thought of was the art of the sword. Well, Kazumi could help me in that department, so I left that for later. Sealing? Nah, I am now going through the level five coursework and it seems easy enough. If I have doubts I can ask her though.

Something unique to Anko, it took quite a while for me to arrive at an answer.

"Stealth. Infiltration and recon.", I reply. She snorted at this.

"What?!", I asked confused.

"You have a spymaster at your home for the foreseeable future. Anything I can teach in those areas he can teach better. Try again minion.", she advised.

I was stumped. Okay. How aboout-

"Elemental Chakra Training.", I reply.

"Good choice.", she nods. "Well, T-44 two days from now, 7:00 am sharp.";

"Yeas Anko.", we reply.

"Good.", she grins. "Dismissed."

We were at Konoha Park, by the time we split. Me being the awesome gentleman I am would not allow Kazumi to return home alone. After dropping her home, which is absurdly close to the compound anyway, I go home, lock the door behind me, change my clothes and jump to bed. Today was a very eventful day and I want to sleep.

 **[O_O]**

I woke up to someone throwing pebbles on my window, which then made me realize that I'd forgotten to set my alarm again. Crap. Thankfully it's just about sunrise and the time is 6:00 am.

I open the window to see Jiraiya.

"Open the locks runt.", he shouts from below. "The survival stage is over!"

This information shocked me. I rushed downstairs and opened the doors. " _What_?!", I exclaimed to a slightly miffed looking Jiraiya.

"Our leaf contingent got through last evening. Another team later that night and the last team just a few minutes ago. I'd dispatched Chuunin to collect y'all, only to find one returning to me saying that he couldn't get into the Uchiha main house and heard a menacing growl from the house nearby before the whole place filled up with Mist. He's convinced that this place is haunted and has vowed to never return."

I facepalmed. Then registered the first part of what he said.

"I'm late again?!", I exclaim.

"Your fault kid", Jiraiya sang out.

I rushed back in washed my face, changed my clothes and taking the storage seal from before, locked the doors behind me and-

"Hey runt. Calm down.", Jiraiya soothes me rubbing my back. "Sheesh, if I'd known that you'd act like this, I wouldn't have said anything. I am coming with you anyways and I can vouch for you."

This calms me a bit. As we headed back to BO, with me brushing my teeth along the way, I find that almost everyone's present and accounted for. Only the people competing and the Hokage have yet to come. I let out a huge sigh of relief seeing this.

One Chuunin on seeing me meeped and hid behind Genma.

" _Mature.",_ I rolled my eyes. Seeing my team-mates though, cheered me up immensely. I went up to them and started chatting. I couldn't see Anko anywhere though. The area for the prelims was as impressive as I remembered it to be. Especially with the handsigns in the Ram seal. It was a beautiful room, spanning at least five hundred by five hundred metres.

Half an hour later, The Hokage arrived, along with the participating Genin, Anko in tow. I smiled at her and nodded. She nodded back. When he was introduced to the residing examinees, he began his speech on how the elemental countries has seen it's longest era of peace since the Third Shinobi war. But also that war wasn't, nor should it be, forgotten and that each of the participant must treat this competition as a substitute for war. The speech may have been short, but it did what was intended. The mood inside the room was now _intense._ He then motioned his hand towards the information board.

"This will be anyone's last chance to get out of the competition. Does anyone want to?", he asked voice ringing out clearly. The team that entered last, from Waterfall, if the headbands were an indication, decided that they were in no shape for a preliminary round and also Kabuto, whom I knew had orders from his precious master, forfeited. But they were given the respect they deserved, other than Kabuto that is. I started clapping. Everyone followed suit. The Hokage beaming at me was clapping too.

"That board will tell you who will be going against whom. As your names come I will-", he was stopped in the middle.

"If I may Hokage-sama?", Gekko-san intervened. " _That guy seems sick.",_ I thought to myself. " _Why does that name ring a bell though?"_. I shrug, figuring that it would come to me later.

Sarutobi-sama chuckled graciously. "By all means Hayate-kun. Take the stage."

"Listen up!", he began voice commanding even if that god awful cough of his troubled him. "I will be your proctor for the preliminaries! The word I give is law! If I feel that the match shouldn't continue, then I will announce the winner and stop the match! If fighting continues, both fighters will be disqualified! Standard rule is that either one of the fighters must be unable to continue of forfeit for the fight to finish! AM I clear?!"

A big **YES** gave him the answer he was looking for. Satisfied, he gave the sign for the board to display the first fighters. The roll of the players' names was only ten seconds, but what an intense ten seconds it was. Then they rolled to a stop.

Sasuke Uchinha vs. Zaku Abumi.

" _Shit.",_ I thought to myself. A sound user vs. Sasuke. Especially with those decapitating waves. Yikes. Sasuke was beginning his prelims with a very huge disadvantage. I motion for Akira and Kazumi to stay with Team 7. As part examiner, it was agonizing knowing that I couldn't do anything to help, while Zaku was looking at him predatorily.

I went up with Naruto, Sakura and Kakashi, while Kazumi, Akira and I were discussing how Sasuke might try and get this match to his advantage. The Sand team were ahead of us. Behind us followed Team Eight, Hinata blushing madly.

Sasuke though was standing down there coolly, with one of his fingers digging his ear, then digging his nose and finally going into his pockets, which infuriated Zaku. I was immensely worried for him. Hayate then came in the middle.

"I want a clean fight!", then he looked at the stands. "From all of you." I shuddered.

" _No way that guy is some normal Chuunin."_ , I thought to myself.

He raised his arm. The whole room seemed to have held their breath.

" **BEGIN!** ", he shouted lowering his arm swiftly.

"You're one of the fuckers who humiliated me! And from what I hear-",he was grinning at this point, from his intended pun or just plain sadism I don't know. "-payback's a bitch.", he continued.

"Decapitating _AIRWAVES",_ he shouted out. The chakra build up was immense. I could literally see the sound waves moving towards Sasuke, who was now smirking. I was going mad here. The sound wave passed through him harmlessly. Zaku was in shock. Sasuke wasn't kneeling down, blood coming out of his ears, instead he was running towards him Sharingan activated. I whooped in joy.

"I prepared for this eventuality you _moron_! You used the same technique on that white haired guy in the preliminaries! It doesn't take an effing genius to figure out that your attacks are sound based!", Sasuke shouted.

" _Ah, so that's why he was digging his ears! He probably has something covering them up!",_ I thought fondly.

The beat-down was brutal, with Sasuke's Interceptor style thoroughly showing Zaku why the Uchiha were in fact not a people one should consider crossing paths with, without second thoughts. Zaku wasn't even given a chance to respond, when with a poof, Sasuke brought out _Tender Hands,_ our mom's katana, and slashed through those gauntlets and pinning him to the ground. Short, brutal and graceful.

" _Hmmm. So Kakashi has already begun training him with swords. Good to know_.", I thought critically.

"Yield or start losing body parts!", he threatened holding the blade close to Zaku's shoulder. Zaku now looked really scared. I knew why. If he didn't Sasuke would go on with his threat and Orochimaru would kill him. If he did Orochimaru would kill him anyway. Not that the bastard didn't deserve it.

Hayate though, intervened and called the match in Sasuke's favor. All of us from Konoha cheered, it got a bit annoying with those dumb fangirls' "Go! Sasuke-kuuun!"

He soaked all of this up, much to my amusement. This is an example of how someone should grow. " _NOT that brainless avenger from what I remember, in fact, I stopped reading 'Naruto' because of character deaths, my favorite ones too at that! Only curiosity made me come back for more.",_ I thought frowning a bit.

He came up, psyched at his win. All this time, I was observing him. He didn't bring his fingers to his ears or anything. Just walked up to us grinning.

"Did you see me?!", barked out rejoicing.

"Yes I did Sasuke. That was frikkin amazing!", I yelled back.

"Sasukeeeee! You're making me look bad here! I'm supposed to be the strong one!", Naruto yelled from behind, grinning though. Sasuke went upto his team and high fived Naruto.

"Well done Sasuke! That was well thought out," Kakashi praised. From the shocked looks of his team, I could see that it wasn't easily dished out. Which made the praise he gave me even more precious.

"Hey Sasuke-san.", Kazumi called out from behind us. All of team seven turned.

"How did you protect your ears?", she asked. "From here I could feel a painful ringing in my ear because of that jutsu."

He was now grinning like an idiot. He did that same digging motion in his ears and went close to Kazumi, showing the side of his face. She was blushing like mad.

"Baka! What do you think you're doing?!", she demands.

"Look into my ear.", he drones unimpressed.

I look in on his other ear. What I see amazes me. His ear had a small coat of chakra.

"That isn't what is important.", he informs. "What is, is that I've set it to a frequency, so that external sound waves don't affect me at all."

"Brilliant.", I praise. He blushes a bit. I grin at this.

Meanwhile, the almighty board already had called out the next two contestants.

Kin Tsuchi vs. Shino Aburame.

Both were calm and collected. As the match began, Kin began throwing her genjutsu infused needles, Shino's head tilted a bit, which made her smirk. All of a sudden, he snapped back to reality. She frowned at this. As he became conscious though, he cut the ninja wire that the needle was attached to with his own chakra infused kunai.

The same thing kept happening over and over or at least slight variations of it. She would try and put him under her spell which he would fall under, but break out and detach the ninja wire.

This was frustrating Kin to no end, surprisingly, Shino hadn't brought out any of his insects yet. It was at least twenty minutes into the match when Kin let out a bellow of frustration.

"Aargh! How are you even doing that?!", she yelled.

"I cannot answer that question.", Shino answered in his awesome monotone. "Why? Because then you might find a way to overcome the advantage I have in this match."

Abruptly the attacks stopped.

"You have an advantage huh?", Kin asked, looking at Shino. "Even giving me that hint is enough."

"Your insects are breaking you out of my genjutsu. So, no use fighting like that now.", she rushed to him. His insects then came out buzzing.

" ** _Shadow needles!_** _"_ , she yelled out.

It was impressive. Almost all of the bugs were attacked by it and she phased through them harmlessly. It was now a match of endurance. Of who could withstand more hits and who would last longer. Bringing out more insects would see the danger of them being crushed and I guess she was close to being out of needles too.

It was a very impressive showing, pure Taijutsu and nothing else. Gai and Lee from the other side were looking on critically, with Lee jotting down notes in his notepad.

Slowly though, Shino was gaining the upper hand, with Kin becoming gradually more tired after each hit. Then came a kick from Shino to her left knee that physically unseated her stance, making her fall onto that knee.

She was heaving heavily, confusion writ all over her face. "You fought admirably Kin-san. Why? Even with one of my insects continuously draining you of your chakra, you fought until your legs gave out. You have my utmost respect.", he droned, while holding out his hand.

"P-Proctor!.", she called still breathing heavily. Hayate looked at her. " I f-forfeit."

He nodded. "Winner Shino!", he yelled.

Shino took Kin by the hand and escorted her to her unimpressed looking teammates. Not that Zaku could say anything about it. The hypocritical bastard.

The board then showed the next match.

Kiba Inuzuka vs. Rock Lee.

This fight was going to be interesting. Both are powerhouses, one tai and the other nin. Both have immense amounts of drive and both are immature. I snort at this train of thought.

" **BEGIN!** ", Hayate's voice sounds. All is still for a moment. Lee in the Goken stance and Kiba in the Inuzuka stance. Then the action explodes. Kiba charges head first into the battle, hand reared back. Lee dodges sidestepping and about to backhand Kiba's back. Only finding it hard to because Kiba is too low, twirling on a foot, Kiba jumps towards Lee and first contact is made with Kiba head-butting Lee.

Akamaru barks from his place in the opposite side, where Kiba had left him.

"Alright boy HERE!", he throws a red looking pill high in the air. Akamaru runs from where he is and catches the pill in his mouth, immediately transforming via the Human-Beast Transformation. By this time, Lee has taken advantage of Kiba's distraction and has him now on the defensive. Not for long though, Akamaru joins in the fight, giving Lee an almighty kick on his right shoulder growling menacingly, while Kiba is on the ground sliding towards Lee's legs, which generated a huge amount of dust.

I was literally hanging on the railing trying to see what happened. As the dust dissipated I can make out Lee in the middle, holding Akamaru's and Kiba's legs at the same time. Kiba is on the ground, Lee holding his leg with his left hand and Akamaru is at the same stance with Lee holding him by his right hand. It was pretty badass if I say so myself.

"Yosh! Kiba-kun, Akamaru-kun. You are worthy fighters to make me able to take you seriously! Let's work up a sweat! I want to make Gai-sensei proud!", so shouting, threw the both of them bodily away from him.

"GOOO LEEEE!", I could hear a voice from the other side of the arena. Kakashi paled listening to this. I chuckled.

It turns out that throwing them did not do any good, cause Kiba used his momentum to twirl around with his hand and rushed toward Lee smiling.

"Not bad yourself Lee! It's amazing that you can take on both of us the same time! Akamaru!", he shouted.

"Rowf!", the dog-human barked from behind rushing to help.

The fight was amazing, both showing how much they wanted to win, Lee using his experience and endurance to fight Kiba and Akamaru at the same time, while Kiba and Akamaru were using their clan's signature ferocity and tenacity to fight back. The match took on a whole new level of speed and though, when Kiba upped the ante by introducing Fang-passing-Fang. It was a direct hit and from Gai's expression, I thought that Lee was out of the match for sure.

But to my surprise, I saw Akamaru moving upwards. Lee caught Akamaru in his hand wraps and spun, hitting the ground really hard. The front Lotus, injured him pretty badly, I winced at the impression the both of them made on the ground. Biiiig Mistake. Notice the capital M. This made Kiba go _berserk_. It was no secret that the Inuzuka valued pack way above all others and hurting one of them and leaving the other is a pretty stupid thing to do. He charged in, yelling. Lee now had to be even more careful and on the defensive, since Kiba was in a rage induced state and fighting pretty much with everything he had, ferociously.

Lee finally found his chance when he was able to strike Kiba _hard_ and sent him flying. Lee caught him in the Primary Lotus and started spinning.

"Heh! Is this all?!", I could hear Kiba's voice. I'll show you what _real spinning is!"_

The spinning now reached a level that was reminiscent of the Fang-passing-Fang. Both hit the ground at the same time. It seemed like the both of them were out of the fight and Hayate was about to call it when simultaneous groans made him think otherwise.

Both Kiba and Lee got up from where they lay, Kiba now looked kind of delirious.

"H-Have to save A-Akamaru", he stammered. He moved towards the pup, body staggering. It was then that he fell. Lee slowly went upto him and held him up.

"Now, now Kiba-kun. Do not give me such a cheap victory. I would like it if we drew this match.", he huffed out, helping Kiba to get to Akamaru. It was a heart wrenching sight to see. As he reached, Lee left Kiba to collect his companion, whereupon he fainted.

Hayate taking this chance announced Lee's victory.

"MEDICS!", I cried, jumping down to help. I carried Akamaru safely and cradled the poor whimpering puppy on to my chest.

"Don't worry boy. The both of you fought amazingly well. All that you two need to do now is rest.", I cooed.

The medics came and put Kiba on a stretcher. Other medics took Lee away to examine him. I placed Akamaru carefully on top of Kiba, where he got up, moved closer to Kiba's face, licked him, and curled down to rest. After making sure that Kurenai sensei went with them, I went up to the side railings.

The ground now cleared of every casualty, Sarutobi-sama gave the signal for the board to show us the names of the next contestants. Ten seconds later, every Konoha shinobi inside is either shocked or apprehensive of the coming battle.

" _OH COME ON!",_ I thought to myself shocked. " _Every_ _ **other**_ _match has been different up to now and_ _ **this**_ _one remains the same?! Someone's definitely rigged that stupid thing!"_

For on the board read the names, Neji Hyuuga vs. Hinata Hyuuga.

 **A/N:** DUN DUN DUUUUUN! So, what will happen the next match? :O

frozem1: You're fishing for the story a lot*suspicious look*. However, I do enjoy them. Your reviews keep me going. Keep coming back! :D

NecrorexSparda Juubi-No-Kishin: I've completed the story in my head and I need to address this. Wasn't Hashirama Asura's transmigrant? Did he not have a brother? The same can be said for Madara too can it not? And no Daisuke will not be getting a cursed seal. I already addressed this in a previous chapter. **(SPOILERS! SPOILER ALERT! DO NOT READ IF YOU'VE JUST BEGUN NARUTO! OR IF YOU HAVEN'T FINISHED NARUTO YET!)** I have to correct you with reference to the Zero tails. It was never a part of the Juubi. It isn't even a part of canon, in the final fight, we don't see the zero tails anywhere do we? It was all of the bijuu from the one-tails to the nine -tails. And as for the Juubi's consciousness. It is Kaguya who is the Juubi's consciousness. **(SPOILERS ENDED CONTINUE READING)** And for your final question. If you're familiar with Pokémon. It's like asking a Charmeleon to go against a Charizard.

I hope I've helped to clear your doubts in Naruto for the time being. If I'm wrong, anyone can correct me.

Taosin: I hope I've amused you with this. I really wanted him to antagonize Orochimaru, I'm sorry if you really wanted Daisuke to get the Cursed seal :/ But yes. A chapter containing the Susanoo will be coming soon. Expect it :D

Ice Night: Thank You :D It really makes me happy to read your reviews!

May I direct your views to this story called 'Butterflies' by Fayth85. I absolutely love it! Hats off to the authoress!

As always. R&R peeps. Toodles :]


	14. Chapter 14

**Previously:** Daisuke and Anko make up, before which Daisuke laughs at Orochimaru's face. Haku likes Ameyuri Ringo and is scared to tell her. All of Konoha's Genin advance to the second stage, with Sasuke and Lee now definitely in the Finals. We left when the board announced Hinata's and Neji's match.

 **Disclaimer:** I do not own Naruto. Kishi does. But, Akira, Daisuke and Kazumi are mine though.

 **[O_O]**

Neji Hyuuga vs. Hinata Hyuuga

I looked towards her in worry. I was somewhat comforted when Shino already had his hands around her shoulders and held her steady. Not that she needed it. She was staring determinedly at the board. Seeming to accept the challenge, she nodded her head slightly and went down.

"I was not expecting our fight to be so soon, Hinata-sama.", Neji stated when he reached the centre. "You have always been sheltered by the Main Family and are not ready for the brutality that being a ninja entails. Forfeit and you shall be let off lightly."

"Th-That just goes to show you that you don't know how much I've changed, Neji-nii.", Hinata replied.

"Neji-nii?!", Sakura asked shocked. I snorted at this.

"You've got good brains Sakura-san. You should've realized that they were related somehow!", I scolded her. "But that isn't the full story is it Kakashi? I mean he's glaring at her like as if she's wronged him somehow."

"Astute observation Daisuke. To know the situation between them both, I have to explain to you some of the Hyuuga clan's bloody history. The Hyuuga clan are one of the very earliest clans to have settled in Konoha. There weren't any rules back then and were winging it as they went by. Problems began though when the son of the first heir sired a child with a civilian. Now, having children with civilians wasn't the issue here, there were lots of children already born that way by the time this child was born. It was the second heir's son, obviously younger, though who had an issue. He didn't want the riches of the Hyuuga clan to be exploited by the civilian mother's family. So he developed a seal, one so horrible that with the activation of a single handseal, would give the user immense pain. If the holder of the seal were to die, the acid pre-stored in the seal would dissolve their eyes. Only, he called it a medic seal that would be guarded closely by the Hyuuga clan. Obviously those civilian born children, who had no idea of sealing, were enticed by it and it was on them whom he applied the seal first. He branded those people as Branch House. People not worthy to be in the Hyuuga clan because of their ancestry. Those without the seal were branded Main House, who had complete control over the branch house.", Kakashi lectured looking a little disturbed. Naruto and Sakura were looking at him in shock. Sasuke was glaring grimly at the contestants below. Me? Well my stomach threatened to throw my previous night's dinner all over the observation area.

"Obviously, this started a riot within the clan. Imagine children, crying because some sadistic bastard in the Main House wanted to see them cry, or a really determined person breaking down because they couldn't stand the pain from the seal which was activated by a Main House member who wanted them to stand down.", Kakashi continued painting a really grim picture.

"Before it escalated to full out civil war, Hashirama-sama and Madara-sama were forced to intervene. Swift justice was brought down on the second son's heir when under the influence of Madara-sama's genjutsu, he applied the seal on himself. This person is Hiashi's great-grandfather's older brother, whose family line is now extinct. Hiashi's grandfather's cousin, that is, the second heir's grandson, saw no reason to bring a sire a child into a clan this convoluted, though the Main branch demanded him. Insubordination obviously meant agony via the seal. He went mad because of overuse of the seal and died three days later." Kakashi obviously was not comfortable telling this tale. "There has always been bad blood between the Branch house and Main House after that incident. Looks like they're about to begin.", he nodded towards Neji and Hinata. Sakura looked really melancholy and Naruto looked absolutely shocked.

"Begin!", Hayate's voice sounded from below.

"Before we do this, let me appeal to your logical side.", Neji began condescendingly. I frowned at this. So did Hinata. He smirked though, probably thinking that he was successfully getting under her skin.

"You're a kind soul. You seek peace wherever you go. Harmony seems to be your definition. Gentleness and soft-spoken is how I've ever seen you be. You do not want to get exposed to the brutality that this world of ours dishes out, Hinata-sama. Please forfeit.", Neji ranted. It seemed like he was praising her, but the tone of his voice clearly showed that he was in fact, mocking Hinata. This enraged me for some reason.

 **-With Hinata-**

\- Hinata-sama. Please forfeit.", Neji asked of me. " _I didn't come all this way for me to back down because Neji-nii asks me to. No. I will Fight."_ I thought vehemently.

"I've just about had enough!", Naruto shouted from where he is standing in the observation area. Neji glances up at him. "Who even gave ya the _right?!"_ , he demands enraged. "Hinata!", he called out to me. I looked up at him. "Don't tell me that you're going to stand there and listen to all that spiel! Beat the living crap outta him!"

In one single motion, I remove my jacket and throw it towards the proctor revealing the chakra resistant fabric armor that Daisuke-kun got me before the exams.

"Pl-Please hold on to that for me Proctor-san.", I asked of him politely. "It somewhat restricts my motion and I w-will collect it after the match." He nodded at me.

"You see Neji-nii.", I began, turning towards him, meeting his glare with my own. "I am all of those, but you forget. M-My esteemed father has always drilled me _to never back down._ You may be alright backing down in the face of a stronger ch-challenge, but add this to my repertoire Neji-nii. I. Never. Will. B-Because that is my ninja way.", I finished, activating my Byakugan. So saying, I relaxed into the Gentle Fist stance. I could hear Naruto and Daisuke cheering me from up there.

Neji-nii seems pissed off. But, shakes himself mentally and relaxes into the Gentle Fist stance himself. It took us perhaps a whole minute to start fighting. Me being patient and Neji finally giving in to frustration. I smirked at this and began attacking.

" _I hope you're watching how much I've improved.",_ I thought, looking him directly in the eye. Every chakra fuelled punch countered, every feint read and every thrust parried. It was difficult no doubt, Neji's is a respect one earns. He hates Hanabi and me because he feels that we are sheltered from the harshness from life because of the Main Family.

What he doesn't know, nor realise, is that the same family crushes people they think to be weak, in line to be branded _and that I am no exception._ Heiress to the clan be damned.

 **-With Daisuke-**

I'm floored. Ever since the match started. Hinata is now a different person. _TOTALLY_. What brought this on I don't know, could have been Naruto's outburst or Neji's stupid rant, but she's awesome. I do not know if that's how she looks while training with me, but I know one thing for sure now. Neji is going to get beat.

That armor though is covering most of her vital points nicely. It isn't an armor strictly. On the outside it looks like any other dark full-handed sweater, covering her from the neck upto mid-thigh. What it's made out of though is chakra resistant fabric, classifying it as armor. The bane for any ninja severely dependent on messing up their opponent's chakra network, be it a genjutsu user, a taijutsu user or a ninjutsu user. However, since the material is so costly, not many ninja think of buying one.

Case and point, the match going on in front of me right now. Both of them seem a bit winded. Neji, since he has to apply force to his chakra inducing attacks and Hinata because she has to look out for any Gai trained attacks that might clip her.

All was going well, when suddenly excreta hit the air-cooling rotor device. You see, Neji isn't called a genius for nothing. He figured out a way to still get to her chakra network, by pumping his attacks full of chakra. Both of them were looking to shut down the other's chakra point, but Hinata's reach is too small, something Neji intended to take full advantage of.

The both of them stopped, when Hinata threw out a gush of blood. He'd hit her point close to the stomach. I almost rushed in, before I felt a hand on my shoulder. It was Shino.

"You might want to interfere, but I ask you not to. Why? Because, Hinata has trained a lot with a lot of blood and sweat poured in, in anticipation of meeting Neji in battle during these exams. ", he monotones, shaking his head. I am reluctant to, but I nod at him anyway.

"Besides, look at what she did to Neji.", he continues placing his glasses on the bridge of his nose.

I look at him. He is in obvious pain, the arm he used to thrust at her stomach now flopping uselessly at his side. He had a look of intense hate and was glaring at Hinata who was smirking slightly. Using his other arm and mouth, he uses the straps on his arms to tie his useless arm to his torso. Hinata graciously allowed him time to do that, although I could see that she wanted some time to recover from his hit.

It was apparent that he'd trained using only one arm to fight, still using the Gentle Fist. I was in awe of Gai-sensei's training programme. To the outsider, it might look brutal and unforgiving, but the fruits are there for everyone to see.

The fight was back on, full force, neither giving the other room to spare, both exploiting the other's handicap to the full. Hinata stumbled in the middle, Neji took full advantage of that and pushed her back, exposing her midriff. He rushed in struck her. Exactly above the heart. Remember the excreta hitting the rotor device I was talking about? This was it. Not having done enough he went in for the second hit, making contact successfully. She was definitely falling, close to fainting I might add, but still he was going in for a third hit. I didn't care by then, I rushed in and grabbed her by the arm and pulled her towards me, exposing my back to Neji. I could see Kazumi and Akira were there too, sword unsheathed and kunai in hand, just in case.

I didn't feel any pain though. I looked back to see what happened. Gai-sensei and Kakashi-sensei were holding Neji back. Hayate-san had already called the match in Neji's favor.

"Hey, Hinata!", I call. Her face is really sweaty and she's fighting to keep awake. Sure signs of a cardiac arrest. "Hinata! Cough! Take in deep breaths and cough again!", I coax her, tears forming.

" _Not now. You have to help her!",_ I think blinking them away. She complies, though it's hard for her, she does what I ask her to do. I keep rubbing her back until she's able to cough more strongly.

"What's this?!", Neji demands from behind. "The Main Family member can't hold her ground?!"

"Neji. You promised me that this feud won't cloud your youthful judgment while fighting her. But, what you tried to do is most unyouthful!", Gai-sensei scolds him, sounding disappointed.

"I already called the match when I recognized that she was about to faint.", Hayate said, adding his two ryo. "By all rights I should disqualify you. It disgusts me that I can't, since you, technically, didn't touch her after I called the fight."

By now, Kakashi-sensei and the medics are looking over her, while I glare at Neji. "The damage is to her network, Kakashi-sama. Although she did go into cardiac arrest, Daisuke-sama gave her the correct instructions on what to do, which helped us stop it quickly.", a medic reported to Kakashi-sensei. "Have you considered joining the Medic Corps Daisuke-sama?", he asked turning to me. I shook my head at him.

"Please do consider. We need people who can think quickly in critical times of need.", he asked of me. I nodded back. Perhaps he understood, what I was going through. I was seeing red. I wanted to beat the snot out of Neji, make him haul ass and apologise to Hinata.

"I wouldn't waste my time glaring at me.", he smirked, still holding his arm. "Use it properly to take care of her."

Saying so, he started walking back to the observation area. The medics were now carrying her away in a stretcher. Hayate passed her jacket onto one of them. She didn't have anyone following. I looked up to Anko. She obviously knew about the arrangement I had with the diminutive Hyuuga, so she nodded her head.

Behind me I could hear Naruto. "I swear on everything dear to me Neji. I _will_ win the Chuunin exams.", he began. "And beat your ass to next week while I'm at it!", he snarled. I followed the medics into the care area within the building. I could hear Akamaru whimpering.

Kurenai spotted us as we entered. I told her that I would look over Kiba and that she could go help with Hinata. She nods and points me to where Kiba is now in drips sitting up, his poor puppy obviously whining in worry. I sit on the sofa available in the room. Akamaru recognizes me and as soon as I've sat down jumps on to my lap.

I look to Kiba. "May I?", I ask.

"If he wants you to, I don't see why not.", Kiba shrugs. I start petting Akamaru, which he enjoys a lot. "You're the first person I've seen outside of the clan, that doesn't have a problem with nin-dogs.", he blurts.

"Kakashi-sensei has his own pack.", I tell him.

"But they're not from our kennels.", he replies. "Our dogs are very hard to control, most are feral, but when you came for D-ranks I've observed that they become mush in your hands. Even Hana reported that you aren't scared of them. Her partners, the Haimaru brothers, aren't very accepting of outsiders, but seemed to like you on first sight, even if you smelled strongly of cats."

I laughed at this. "Yes, Buri-chan does have the annoying habit of asking me to play at annoying times."

Thinking for some time, I answer, "I think that all animals can sense fear, anger, the whole repertoire of negative emotions. Us humans included." He nodded at this. "I think that they are able to sense that I will do them no harm, that with me they are safe and that I love animals, no matter what they be. Maybe that's why they like me. I don't know, just ranting here."

He laughed at this, sounding really close to a bark. "I dunno Daisuke, look at Akamaru.", he motions to my lap, where the small motions coming from Akamaru's stomach tells me that he's sleeping. "He's been awake and refused to rest, even after the medics expressly told him to. He just growled at them and went to Kurenai-sensei, still refusing to sleep. I think you're on to something."

Said teacher was now rushing in and pulling me into an enormous hug, taking care not to wake Akamaru. My blood threatens to pour out via the top of my head. " _Hey! I'm a guy!_ " I think shocked. " _A teenaged hormonal guy at that. I can_ _ **feel**_ _things!_ "

Blush in full force I ask her, "Errrm, what was that for?"

"That's the second time in the same day that you have taken care of one of my students, Daisuke-kun.", she replied beaming.

"It was nothing, sensei. I just asked her to do something I'd read in a book somewhere.", I muttered.

"What Mr. Modest isn't telling us here is that he helped save Hinata's life, at a crucial stage in cardiac arrest.", she explained to a gawking Kiba.

"Hinata had a heart-attack?!", Kiba asked, almost shouting. Kurenai-sensei smiled.

"No. She almost did, but Daisuke-kun here saved her from that. It would've seriously damaged her chances at a ninja career and life, if it were not for him."

It was at this opportune moment that my stomach chose to tell the world that I hadn't had my breakfast yet. Now, I was blushing for a totally different reason. Kurenai-sensei and Kiba laughed at this.

"You wait here. I'll go get some food.", she laughed, turning towards the door before I could do anything. Not that I could, seeing as I had one cute sleeping baby on my laps. I sighed.

"Careful there, Daisuke.", Kiba joked. "My mom says that sighing takes years off of your life." I snorted at this. It became quiet for a while. Then he asked, "Why do you do it?" I look up to him, still softly stroking Akamaru.

"I mean why do you help? Neither Hinata nor I have any direct relations with you, yet you go out of your way to help us. Why?"

I glared at him, all ready to be offended, then rip him a new one and what not. But, when I see his face he genuinely seems confused, although I could see a bit of cringing with the onset of my initial reaction.

"Why not? Are you all not my friends?", I ask. He nods. "Will you not do the same for me?" He bristles at this, seeming to take offence that I even need to ask, then understanding passes through his face.

"I understand, Daisuke. I'm sorry I didn't mean to phrase it like that.", he apologises. I grin.

"Nah, it's okay. To err is human after all", I replied.

It was obvious that he still needed to rest, seeing that his eyes were lidding, I helped him along by pretending to sleep myself. By the time Kurenai came around, I motioned for her to be quiet. She nodded and set the food down on the side table. I started to open the packages. Rice, stir-fried chicken and some curry on the side.

"Someone's been talking with Anko.", I murmured smirking. She rolled her eyes and motioned for me to eat. I thanked her and got to it, while she went to Hinata's side. After finishing my meal, I sit on the sofa, rubbing the pup's oh so soft fur around his neck…..

 **[O_O]**

By the time I wake up, Hinata's already up. Akira and Kazumi are with her and the healing room's filled up quite a bit.

"Morning sleepy-head.", Kazumi teases, the both of them coming towards me. I rub the back of my head embarrassed. Akamaru's still on my lap. According to Kiba, he was guarding the both of us very jealously. Yoroi is here, one of his hands heavily bandaged. Tenten in sleeping, Lee there for her in case she wakes up. I could make out Kakashi, but no idea who he was with.

I asked Kazumi what happened.

"Well, that guy there was unfortunate enough to go against Gaara.", she points to Yoroi. "Crushed his arm like it was a pillow. Certainly didn't look like one though.", she continued, face scrunching up. "Seemed severely pissed off when the proctor wouldn't allow him to continue."

"That's him alright.", I roll my eyes.

"Kakashi-sensei is standing over Sakura. She went against your friend Shikamaru.", she explains.

"Ouch.", I wince. "Her voice would've been extremely stimulating for him. Not exactly how you want an opponent Nara to be.", I tell her. She nods her head, amused.

"Naruto went against Ino. Beat the snot out of her obviously.", she rolls her eyes, seeing my pride. "Tenten-san though..", she looks a bit melancholy and worried here. "She was against Temari-san. When she knew her weapons would be useless, tried to go for hand-to-hand combat. As you can see it's not the best plan she came up with."

"Her brother Kankuro was fighting Misumi when I saw him last. Akira and I were wondering if you were declaring your undying love for Hinata-san and that was why it was taking you so long to come back.", she teased. "Only to find you sleeping here with this cutie on your lap. Kurenai-sensei warned us not to wake you up.", she cooes at Akamaru, who yipped back tail wagging.

Judging from Hinata's reaction, it was obvious that she'd heard and I was glaring at Kazumi, blush full force.

"I can't take you seriously when you're blushing like that.", she laughed.

"I need to talk to Jiraiya!", I exclaim slapping my head.

" _I can't believe I forgot to tell him that Gaara's the One-Tail jinchuriki!",_ I thought mentally slapping myself.

"It's not something to go to Jiraiya over!", Kazumi exclaims still teasing. I roll my eyes.

"Totally different matter, Kazumi.", I retort.

Akira is sniggering beside her. "Hey! You're supposed to be on my team!", I faux scold him.

"The prelims should get over soon.", she replied, getting that I needed the information. On cue, Choji comes in laid on a stretcher.

"What happened to him?", I ask the medic who is bringing him in.

"Punch to the stomach while using the Human-Bullet Tank jutsu.", she informs moving quickly.

I winced slightly.

"Ouch. That has got to hurt.", Akira says, voicing my thoughts.

"Are the prelims over?", I asked.

"Pretty much yeah.", she replied. "Although you've got to move fast if you want to catch the match-ups for the Finals."

"Akamaru.", I turned toward the pup. "You've got to be a brave dog and look after Kiba for me okay? I want to go find out who Naruto and Sasuke are up against." He barked back, sitting upright, chest puffing out. I laughed here.

I picked him up carefully, put him on top of Kiba and headed out, motioning for Kazumi and Akira to follow. They did so without asking anything. It still astounded me that they looked up to me that way.

I went out to the arena, hearing Shika calling "Six. Meh, troublesome.", and Temari bristling. I had one answer.

"Good showing young ones!", Hokage-sama praised, looking at each one of them smiling warmly. Some of them looked bored, but all of the Konoha Chuunin hopefuls took pride in taking his praise. Even if Shika didn't show it outright. I rolled my eyes at him.

"You have one month to prepare for the finals!", Gekko announced. "I advise you to use this time and train properly! Dismissed!"

The formal setting immediately turned informal. Everyone smiling at each other. Gai challenging Kakashi to an inter-team match, Shika muttering about troublesome tournaments grabbing his team and heading out. I went up to Jiraiya and Anko.

"I might've -uhh- messed up a bit. Scratch that a lot.", I blurted.

"How much minion?", Anko asked, eyes narrowing.

"Threat to Konoha level?", I replied, rubbing the back of my head sheepishly.

"Only you kid.", Jiraiya growled. I kept rubbing the back of my head.

"We need an audience with Saru-ji as soon as possible.", I continued a bit angry at myself.

"He's right here.", came an amused voice behind me. I blanched at this. I turned around to see Hokage-sama in full Kage regalia, amusement dancing in his eyes.

"Now what is this I hear about a threat to my village?", he asked.

"Could we please take this to your office?", I asked.

"Sure, Daisuke-kun.", he replied.

Since Anko was a part of his entourage anyway, we followed. As soon as we entered, he did the privacy jutsu, activated the sound-proof seal for good measure, sat down on his office seat and motioned for me to begin.

And begin I did, with the story of how I initially met Gaara and that he is in fact a jinchuriki, most probably the one-tails', seeing that he had similar abilities to that of the previous one-tails Jinchuriki. Also, that he _felt_ similar to Naruto when angry. The tricky part was, I had to voice them as suspicions that I'd derived on my own. I was careful in what I said, lest I jumble something up and a bucket load of suspicion dowsed on me.

After I'd finished, the whole room was quiet. Pin drop silence, as my mom would've liked to call it. Hokage-sama is sitting on his chair, thinking deeply, eyes closed, fingers intertwined. Anko seems disturbed about it all, while Jiraiya is looking like he's coming to terms with my information. Which means that he knew about it before. Akira and Kazumi are waiting outside.

"Good thing you brought this to us Daisuke-kun, no matter how late.", he smirked at the end. "We already had suspicions, seeing that he could control sand like no other."

"Erm, one more thing.", I began. "Orochimaru is probably planning on using the final exams as a distraction to get to either Sasuke or me."

All present in the room knew enough of Orochimaru to know that he would somehow get to us, no matter the amount of protection provided. By the look on her face, I could see that Anko was probably having a mind fart. Nothing much was left to be said after that. Team twelve exited the tower, Kazumi visibly put off that the team as a whole weren't able to listen to what I had to say, seeing that Anko was still not her usual self.

It was only during lunch that Anko seemed to begin to behave in a way that was normal to her. An idiot thought that he would be able to get the better out of us by leering at us. I began grinning here. Motioning for Akira and Kazumi to watch, I sat back to enjoy the show. When the bill arrived, o' shock o' shock. It was too expensive. So expensive, in fact that it would've put a decent five star restaurant's menu to shame. He held his face neutral while he gave us the bill.

"Thanks for the food.", Anko chirped ripping it and heading out. We followed her, leaving a poor stuttering businessman behind.

"You think Hokage-sama will let you go?!", he shouted from behind. She flipped him the finger. We continued walking towards our training ground. I laughed. Even Kazumi was smirking a bit.

"Was that a good thing to do?", Akira asked from his stand point.

"Minion. Understand this. When life gives you lemons, you fucking throw them back at it. Capische?"

Akira stood there, confused look on his face, but nodding all the same. I laughed even harder.

Reaching the place, we first headed for the tower. It was a mess. Things strewn helter skelter. Stuff that was supposed to be in the wastebasket lying on the floor. I sighed seeing this.

"Tch. Stupid Genin leaving stupid stuff around, not caring for those stupid people who have to clean-up afterward.", Anko grumbled, starting to take stuff off the floor. Without having her to tell us, we began cleaning too. Seven floors was a huuuuge amount of work, but we did it piece by piece, floor by floor. It was well into the night by the time we finished cleaning the tower. All of us were exhausted.

"We now have only 200 square kilometers of dense forestry to go.", Kazumi commented drily. All of us snorted at once.

"Leave the forest to those lazy bastards who should've come today.", Anko growled out. "I'm winding up those guys and slave-driving them _tonight_."

Akira, Kazumi and I shuddered at the apparent joy in her tone when she did that.

"Did you not ask us to report by seven tomorrow?", Kazumi asked. Anko waved her off.

"I'll be there don't worry.", she replied. "I don't think dinner is possible tonight minions. I have some Chuunin hunting to do. They can be motivated when they want to be. See ya later.", she cackled grinning madly.

A whoosh is all that told us that she'd Shunshinned off.

"We have _got_ to learn that!", I exclaimed.

"Ya mean ya don't know how to use it?", Akira asked. He Shunshinned a few metres away from me to prove his point.

"You idiot! His parents died before they were able to teach him! Be at least somewhat sensitive of his situation will you?", Kazumi scolded him, with him looking cowed.

"I'm sorry Daisuke.", he apologised. It did sadden me a bit to be truthful. But I smiled.

"Nah Akira. I do that sometimes too. Don't worry about it. So team. Are we going home or to a restaurant. Or even better, we'll all go to my home. The Mist trio should be free now and Jiraiya will probably be returning sometime soon. Knowing my brothers, they'll be out celebrating with Kakashi."

This seemed to pick the mood up a bit, although Kazumi was still glaring at Akira. We made it to my clan compound and as usual, the Mist trio were training their asses off. Kazumi and Akira were in shock looking at them. Then they looked at me.

"I know right?!", I exclaim.

The training got over in a few moments. I could see why they weren't bothered that they were training out in the open. The mist was so thick that you couldn't see six inches ahead of you and from the sounds of it, those three have death battles going on inside there. As they were winding down, Zabuza dispelled the mist. Hmmm, something to think about.

"Hey Zabuza!", I called. "Coming for dinner?"

"Just let us finish polishing our blades, we'll be right in.", he replied.

"I'll help with cooking!", Haku supplied smiling at me. I nodded smiling back.

We headed into the house and went into the kitchen. I started setting up the utensils, while Haku started chopping vegetables. In a few minutes we had a broth going and with Haku's magic hands, a heavenly aroma too.

Jiraiya came in a few minutes later and took a deep breath.

"That smells divine. I can't wait to have dinner.", he praised us. I grinned back at him in happiness. Haku nodded. "Hey runt.", he called turning to me. "I passed Anko trying to play piñata with a Chuunin a few minutes back. Any story there?", he asked.

I laughed here. "Well. Let's just say that some people are not worth pissing off because they're not worth it. Others you _shouldn't_ because of what they'll do to you. Anko falls squarely in the second."

"That told me literally nothing.", Jiraiya sweat-dropped. I pouted.

"She looking for a bunch of lazy Chuunin to lord over. Happy?", I asked, grumpily. Understanding dawned in his face.

"Ah. That I can live with.", he replied sitting on the table nodding at me smirking and beginning to read something. I got back to cooking. A few moments later the front door banged open.

"I'm telling you! I'll win, dattebayo!", came Naruto's voice, running in, if his increasing volume was any indication. "NO! I will!, came Sasuke's voice. Then the kitchen door burst open, Naruto and Sasuke panting.

"See! I WON!", Naruto shouted.

"No you didn't! I did!", Sasuke argued.

"Me!

"Me!"

"ME!"

"ME!"

 **"DAISUKE! TELL HIM!",** they shouted turning towards me. I shrugged.

"From what I can see, it was a photo-finish.", I replied. The both of them glared at me.

"Did you scrub your shoes at the entrance?", I asked giving a full glare back. They looked at me sheepishly.

"Shoes first. Then floors. Now!", I ordered. The both of them went grumbling. I sighed. "When both of you finish, I'll make some miso ramen with a tomato based broth." This brightened the both of them up considerably and went to work.

A few moments later, Zabuza and Ameyuri came strolling in. She went upto Haku who was making the curry and took a deep breath. "Hmm. That smells lovely. What is it?", she asked. The poor guy was a blushing mess of stutters.

"Bitter gourd and chicken.", he finally muttered out. She came to me next. "And what do we have here?", she asked me.

"Mushrooms. Chopped and seasoned.", I replied.

"Can't wait!", she exclaimed, going back to sit on the couch near the window. From his place I could feel the obvious eye-roll that Zabuza was doing. Hmmm, so he knows. I finished preparing the mushrooms and cleaned my hands.

"Hey Zabuza. I've been thinking.", I began.

"Great! Kid's growing up at laast.", Zabuza sniffed, pushing an imaginary tear away from his cheek. Akira snorted.

"Fine!", I huffed. "Be that way! But when another swordswoman tells you that I upgraded her sword, allowing it to channel more chakra and be more accepting of theirs, making it more efficient, don't come running to me!"

" **Wait what?** ", both Jiraiya and Zabuza asked at the same time. It was kinda funny so I laughed, with them sweat dropping.

"You're using seals aren't you?", Jiraiya asked.

"Yep!", I answered.

"What seals are you using?" Zabuza asked.

"That information is classified.", I replied, poking out my tongue at him.

"Come on tell me!", Zabuza bugged.

I went up to Ameyuri.

"Ameyuri-san. May I have a look at your blades please.", I asked. She looked at me for a long moment.

"Know that I don't allow even Zabuza-sama to touch them, unless it's while sparring and he absolutely has to use his hands. And that was three years ago.", she told me seriously. "If this is some juvenile prank to get back at Zabuza-sama, I swear to all that is holy why they used to call me the Thunder Princess back home."

I blinked once, then twice.

"Did you say 'Thunder Princess'?", I asked shocked. She nodded looking at me quizzically. I went to my room mantel, took out the picture of my mom and her team from it's frame, brought it down and showed it to her.

"Do you remember them?", I asked. Her eyes widened. "Kushina Uzumaki. I remember her well. I was barely eleven when I first met her team. In battle that is. My master was severely incapacitated and was almost robbed of her ninja career by her and Mikoto Uchiha, while Konoha's white Fang and Mikino Yoruichi assassinated a corrupt lord of the Water country, only at that time we didn't know that he was corrupt and almost went to war with the Fire Nation. My master's whole team of apprentices ran away, the pussies, while I stayed back to fight. I was obviously easily overwhelmed, but what she said to me that day still inspires me. They're really young in this though. They were all Chuunin or higher during that mission."

I nodded here, eyes a bit moist. "It's Mikino Yamanaka now. Ino Yamanaka is her daughter and Inoichi is her husband. Naruto is Kushina's son. And Mikoto was Sasuke's and my mother. It was her who instilled the awe of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist into me. She mentioned you by title, although I didn't know it was you. I would be really glad that it was your sword that I ever updated first. May I please look at them?"

She still looked at me uncertainly. Deciding upon something, she unsealed them.

"Treat them well.", was all she said handing them over to me, where I took out an empty scroll and sealed them in it.

"I have to be absolutely sure of what I'm doing here." I informed her.

You're primarily a Raiton user right?", I asked.

"Anyone who inherits the sword has to be.", she replied.

"And the water element?", I asked.

"Needed for performing **_Kirigakure no Jutsu._** "

"Tell me how that works. Do you take the water you use as mist back in or dispel it?"

She looked at me like I was a madman. "You've seen us do it lots of times Daisuke. We have to dispel it."

"Like I said, I have to be sure. Now how about the metal used? How much chakra do you have to use to channel chakra through it?

She thought for a moment. "Initially it was high at about two and a half times the chakra used, if the jutsu were used similarly using handseals. But now, it takes almost the same."

I nodded. "Do you want the person who inherits the blade to go through that or do you want to make it easier for them?"

"Don't change that aspect. It is a critical phase of our training period. It makes us question if we really are worthy of inheriting a blade with so much history. It drove me to become stronger. And it will happen to my successor too."

I nodded again. I had no doubt that these two were going back to Kiri and if Ameyuri were to go, Haku was sure to follow.

"Expect your blade in a week. If it isn't to your satisfaction, I'll bring it back to how it is now.", I told her happily.

"Just my luck…", came Zabuza's grumbling voice from behind.

I went back to prepare Sasuke's and Naruto's second dinner. By the time they were done, it was ready. All of us then sat and ate. Naruto kept bugging Jiraiya for training, while Sasuke was eyeing Zabuza, who had noticed and was ignoring the boy.

After dinner everyone dispersed, I went along with my team-mates, informing Sasuke that I'd be back within the hour. We dropped Kazumi and then I went with Akira to meet Arima-san and Tsugumi-san. It had been too long since I had seen them.

Arima-san was as always goofy and Tsugumi-san pulled Akira and me into a huge hug. Only after ensuring them that, yes that weekend Kazumi and I would be at their home for lunch both days, was I allowed to leave that household.

I reached home quickly enough, while taking the long route. On reaching, I ensured that everyone was in fact inside, then locked the doors. Wishing Sasuke and Naruto a very good night, I went to the living room, where Jiraiya was pretending to be asleep.

"I know that you're awake.", I said out to him. He still pretended to be asleep. "Well don't mind me then. I'll be working on updating the Kiba."

I went upto the study table and unsealed the Kiba blades. First thing to look for was always places to apply the seal. It was murder, seeing that these blades needle looking and had very little hilts. I was toying with the idea of reinforcement, writing down seals since I didn't want to waste any more chakra than I had to. Sealing them back in, I applied the seal on the table. The reinforcement seal worked pretty well, it held even when I tried to blow up the desk using a powerful Blasting seal. Sasuke and Naruto came running down when they heard the sound. Sasuke rolled his eyes looking at the slightly smoking desk and me grinning. Naruto looked excited. Through all this, Jiraiya was still 'sleeping'.

Satisfied with this, I next applied the seal on the sofa on which Jiraiya was 'sleeping'. Noisily. His head started to sweat. Then I started mumbling specifics.

"Hmmm. That was an MF of 1. Ima try an MF of ten next."

"Are you crazy?!", he shouted finally getting up. "A mag factor of ten on the Blasting Seal could wipe out this whole district! Not to mention if you don't supply a large enough sealing array lined along the main matrix it could blow upon your face! Just what are you experimenting with?!"

I poked my tongue out at him. "Just something that tickles my fancy from time to time."

"That's some fancy you have there.", he grumbled.

"I was thinking of testing out this seal on the sword next. Up for it? After this I swear that you can go sleep.", I implored.

"Fine.", he gave in sighing.

I took out the blades. I'd decided that the since the seal is going to be pre-activated and doesn't acquire chakra from the user. I applied it and all of us went out to test it.

I knew jack about swordsmanship though, so I just held the both of them in front of me.

"Whenever you're ready.", I informed Jiraiya. He sweat-dropped.

"Are you sure about this kid?", he asked.

"What's life without a little adventure eh?", I asked back grinning.

He shrugged. "Your ass."

"Earth Release: Fist-Rock Technique.", he called. I watched in fascination as rocks encased his hand and hardened there, but not too much as he was able to flex his fingers properly.

"It's been quite a while since I've used this.", he murmured. Then came rushing towards me. Immediately I went on the defensive. Naruto looked psyched, while Sasuke was looking on normally.

Every punch of his was deliberately slow, but would hurt if connected. All I had to do was bring them to the swords' path. I was amazed at how they held on. No vibrations to the hilt of the sword and powerful enough to stop those punches.

" _Niiiice_.", I thought to myself a little giddy. " _If this is the power of_ _ **normal**_ _seals, no wonder people were afraid of the Uzumaki made ones."_

After a few minutes, I called a halt to the spar. I was ecstatic at the results. At no point did the seal give and Jiraiya was no slouch. He did hold back on speed, but I'm sure he didn't hold back on the punches.

"That's some seal kid.", he praised, releasing the technique.

I grinned in response.

"Now can we go sleep?", he asked.

"I don't see why not.", I replied.

We went in a happy bunch, everyone too excited to sleep. Everyone but me sat down in the main hall, whereas I went to the kitchen to prepare some hot chocolate. It was at least an hour and a half before everyone went into their bedrooms for sleep to claim them. When it claimed me, I allowed it too quite happily,

 **A/N: IMPORTANT NOTE:** I have now officially entered my final year of college. Because of this, I've joined a hostel close to the college and my updates schedule is going to be even more fucked up. I enjoyed reading the reviews for Daisuke :D

Ice Knight: I hope I haven't spoiled your looking forward to more chapters. :\

NecrorexSparda Juubi-No-Kishin: **SPOILERS! SPOILER ALERT! DO NOT READ IF YOU HAVEN'T FINISHED NARUTO!** I'll answer I order. Who knows? *smirk* Yes, all the bijuu will know. Read on to find out. Izanagi and Izanami are jutsu that the Sharingan itself is capable of, there is no need for the MS or EMS to learn these techniques. **SPOILER END! CONTINUE READING!**

Toasin: :\ I so wanted to bring in the Susano'o here. No situation arose for Daisuke to actually use it.

NightlyRowenTree: Right back at ya! :D

frozem1: Thanks a lot! I wanted to write them differently. So I did. :D I was too lazy to write the others though :P

Ddragon21: A mini-Madara eh? Lesse :]

Anon: Why not join FF and become one for this story? :D

As always R&R peeps. Toodles :)


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